


A Hidden Truth

by ashmes



Series: fuck konoha [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Jinchuriki - Freeform, M/M, Shinobi Corruption, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-05 19:29:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 34,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20278606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashmes/pseuds/ashmes
Summary: The Will of Fire has never led Konoha astray yet.





	A Hidden Truth

**Author's Note:**

> SO! This was the first part in a larger series I've been planning for most of the summer and it's finally here! What can I say except "my city now". I wrote this rewrite because I love Naruto, the worldbuilding, the characters, etc. Hated the nationalism, the sexism, the fact Sasuke gets shat on by the narrative, the fact Naruto becomes a shill, the lack of gays. Ya know. Thank you Kishi for giving me blue prints LMAO!!!!!!
> 
> I wanted to say thank you to my beta reader Kat who read this in the first draft with fixing some ooc scenes and expanding certain topics I wanted to cover. Also thank you to everyone who let me rant about Naruto + the plot of this rewrite LOL
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoy! It's been fun! Time to let this baby run wild!

_“I am still trying to forgive the world for not letting me live forever. When I was younger I thought death was just misunderstanding. I thought when bad things happen there will be witnesses.”_

— **Nancy Huang** , “Nyquil Dreams,” from Favorite Daughter

Konohagakure forges its strength and power among the Five Great Shinobi Nations in no small part to the Will of Fire. 

For any great nation to thrive, there must be a foundation strong enough to bear the weight of its men, women, and children. Senju Hashirama was a man of power, and had planted the seed of the Senju Clan philosophy that burned through the hearts of Konohagakure citizens in order to strive for a peace their people longed for after years of hatred, pain, and warfare ravaged their land. For too long, clans had waged war against each other, when a unification of the clans with different kekkei genkai could come together to bring an unmatched strength unseen before. All that was needed was a shared goal among the clans. A mutual desire to protect and cherish the village as if it were their own blood. Shinobi long after Konohagakure’s founding would embody the Will of Fire as generations before, in honor of the village’s noble desire for peace.

A test was brought against Konohagakure in the form of a demon.

According to myth and legends passed down, the Nine-Tails is one of many tailed beasts scattered throughout the nations, a natural disaster of mass-destruction that fed off the bloodlust and hatred for all humans throughout the world. To protect mankind from these beasts, an old Sage had sealed Kyūbi and his siblings into humans hosts who’d later become known as Jinchūriki. A human sacrifice for the sake of not only protecting the hidden villages in which these Jinchúriki inhabited, but for all of mankind.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, as the Third Hokage, had gone under extreme measures in order to prevent such an attack on the village, but still, he failed. Konohagakure had lost their Fourth Hokage and many fine Shinobi in sacrifice to subdue the Nine-Tails into a new host after the sudden attack of the village. Times of crisis shapes a village and defines its people for better or worse, this much he knew from the history of tragedy and the grief that followed. The aftermath of Kyūbi had left the village and its people permanently scarred, damaged and broken, fearful of the attack and its circumstances. Whispers spread like wildfire through the broken and empty streets of the remnants of the village, rumors of deceit and conspiracy. 

If the hidden villages themselves had attempted to use the power of the Nine-Tails for their own agendas and personal goals in furthering their power, it’s not so difficult to believe others with a vendetta may gain similar ideas. Whether or not it was true barely mattered, for the idea had already been implanted, and it needed to be stopped before the infection spread.

A Hokage’s main duty is to protect the village and eliminate any threats against the village, whether it was external or internal. Understanding of sacrifice and being able to make the difficult choices is crucial in order to perform his duties to the best of his ability. 

If the Uchiha Clan were a threat to the safety of the village and its people, they must be eliminated for the sake of peace. 

The Will of Fire has never led Konoha astray yet.

—

From a young age, Uzumaki Naruto understands he’s the village’s burden. 

It’s in the way the other villagers act around him. The way their eyes would bare into him with a hatred he couldn’t understand, or even worse, when they’d avoid or glaze past him like he was nothing more than an insect in their way. It didn’t take a genius to recognize what others had felt about him—he’d spent enough time watching from the outside to understand what a person’s upturned nose meant, the glare in their eyes when something unwanted came in their possession, or even what it’s _supposed _to look like when others cared about your well-being. Some of villagers even acted afraid of him, which made no sense, considering how small he is and the fact he’s not even officially a Shinobi yet.

There was only one other person who had looked into Naruto’s eyes with a hatred that wasn’t meant for him. It didn’t mean they were friends, and it didn’t make Naruto feel any less alone. 

Nobody really lent him a clue on what it was about him that had garnered the collective loathing and fear of just about every villager. Whether it was something he’d done he hadn’t realized, something he said, or just how he is—he had no idea. That’s the part that drove him absolutely nuts.

When he was younger than he was now, he’d tried being polite and kind to those around him. Offering a hand to those who appeared to need it, introducing himself to the other kids in the Academy, and even trying to sucker up to whoever happened to be his caretaker at the time. Each time he was either ignored or met with apprehension, discomfort, or outright disgust. After a while, he sort of gave up. Disappointment ends up taking a toll after so many failed attempts at connection, at being seen or acknowledged as nothing more than a nuisance eats away at a person no matter how hard they try and fight against it. 

If they wanted a nuisance, well, Naruto could give them one easy.

Funnily enough, the more he acted out, the more others paid him attention. Pranks gave him headway into the spotlight, because nobody could miss it if he were to pour paint down one of the Hokage’s face on the monument. Shop owners couldn’t ignore him if he spray painted their buildings. Nobody could avoid him if he was running right into them, yelping and laughing loud enough to be heard from blocks over. If the other kids were loud, he was yelling. It didn’t to Naruto matter if the villagers still hated him. At least this way, nobody could ignore him. 

Something about all of this should’ve clicked in earlier, but everyone, including Naruto, knew he wasn’t very smart to begin with. 

“Everybody hates you because you hold the Nine-Tails in you,” Mizuki says through gritted teeth. “Even Iruka-Sensei hates you. _You _killed his parents.”

It had come about in a too-fast sequence of events. Stealing a scroll. Iruka-Sensei rescuing him from being killed, crying and bleeding on top of him and apologizing to him over and over for not being enough. All these years came crashing into him at once, finally making some semblance of sense. The hatred, the fear, the loathing, the isolation… It made sense why no amount of groveling or acting out would change the village’s minds about him, for they had come to the conclusion long before Naruto could understand what hatred meant. Finally, a reason for bearing the weight of the village’s burden finally came to light, and it once again became apparent that it was only Naruto who had been left in the dark. 

How many other people had known? Iruka-Sensei, obviously. This man who’d tried to kill him. The Hokage probably. Probably the villagers who were alive when the fox had been sealed into him. Perhaps their children too. If Naruto being a Jinchūriki was supposed to be a secret, from himself or the rest of the village he still wasn’t quite sure, it’s quite clear nobody really made that great an attempt to hide their knowledge of the subject. Eventually he would have figured it out. Maybe. 

Did it matter? Would it have changed anything if Naruto did know the truth about himself from the beginning? Would he have dulled himself down, make himself palatable and safe for the villagers who made no effort to hide the fact they despised him for something out of his control? 

Life would have made more sense. At least he’d understand why everyone hated him so, and what purpose he held for the village besides weighing everyone down. Maybe Naruto wouldn’t have questioned as often as he did if he was simply a tragic mistake of being born. 

“Iruka-Sensei,” Naruto mumbles tiredly from his bedside, in the same spot he’s been since the Medic team had brought his instructor to the hospital. They allowed him to stay, at Iruka’s request of course, and hasn’t gone home in two days. “Can I ask you something?”

Iruka for the most part is healing splendidly. There’s a puffiness to his eyes that hasn’t gone away since he was crying over Naruto’s body, but the color has returned to his face and he doesn’t look on the verge of death anymore. Still, he moves slowly, turning his head to meet Naruto’s questioning gaze. “Mhm, as long as you know I’m still not able to leave to get you ramen until tomorrow. Doctor’s orders.”

“It’s not that,” Naruto replies, though the idea of ramen has his belly growling impatiently. He lets his gaze wander out the window, where Konoha is bristling with their day-to-day life. From this distance, he can seen the outline of the monument. “Do you think the village would ever let a Jinchūriki ever become Hokage?”

The question flitters around the room, filling the silence. It leaves his stomach in knots the longer Iruka remains quiet, but then there’s a soft hum, and Iruka’s got his eyes closed in deep thought before glancing back at Naruto.

“Why would you want to know something like that?”

“Because I’m going to become Hokage,” Naruto replies bluntly, unexpecting someone as smart as Iruka to ask such a dumb question. “Whether or not the people like that, I don’t care. All I care about is whether _I _can.”

“I think you can do anything, Naruto.” Iruka smiles softly, and it’s still overwhelming for Naruto—having someone care about him as much as Iruka does. After a moment, the smile falters, and something deep in Naruto’s gut panics. He feels greedy, wanting to keep all of Iruka’s smiles and warmth to himself and doesn’t want to do anything to lose it. “Why do you want to become Hokage, hm? This all feels very sudden.”

“Because then everyone in the village will acknowledge me,” he answers simply. This isn’t a sudden want, he’s blasted this dream to anyone with ears close enough to catch his ramblings, but this is the first time he’s ever had anyone to talk about this with seriously. “Everyone loves the Hokage, so if I become the Hokage then—”

“Everyone will love you?” Iruka finishes.

Naruto nods sharply, and for some reason can’t bare to look Iruka in the eyes.

Iruka sighs, and it feels like disappointment. “I don’t really think what you want is to become Hokage.”

“Of course I do!” Naruto shouts on the defensive, and doesn’t quiet himself even after Iruka winces at the sudden volume. “Do you think I don’t want it enough, Iruka-Sensei? Because I do! I’ll prove it to you. I’ll train hard everyday until I’m stronger than all of the Hokages combined! All I need to know is whether or not I can do it! I don’t care about the hard work or however long it takes, I’ll become Hokage.”

A small smile forms on Iruka’s face, but it’s not as it was before. There’s something else there in the darkness of his eyes Naruto can’t pinpoint, but he’s sure it’s nothing important.

“If it’s what you really want, Naruto, you can become Hokage,” Iruka says, finally. “I’ll help you no matter what it takes, because I believe in you. Everyone will see in you what I see.”

A warmth blooms on Naruto’s cheeks, and he’s smiling so wide his face hurts but he can’t bring himself to stop. “I know I can do it, Iruka-Sensei,” he says and quickly adds, “And thank you for believing in me too.”

Iruka gives a small nod before eventually drifting off to sleep, not bothering to tell Naruto to go home considering Naruto’s protested him every time he’s done so already. It takes Naruto much longer to fall asleep, buzzing with the reassurance he can become Hokage someday, despite being a Jinchūriki, despite the villagers hatred and fear of him. All he has to do is get them to see what Iruka sees in him, whatever the hell that may be.

When the nurses come in to check in on Iruka, Naruto’s fast asleep on the cot with Iruka’s hand firmly in his hair, protective even while fast asleep.

—

When an Academy student graduates into Shinobi Genin, it’s frowned upon for instructors to be overemotional at the ceremony. They can be proud of the fact they’ve shaped the fine Shinobi of the future, even be silently wistful at the fact the students they have grown accustomed to will no longer be there, but otherwise no outward display of emotions.

Instructors aren’t supposed to have favorites either, but Iruka has long since broken that rule. If there’s proud tears in his eyes, he makes no move to wipe them away.

Naruto beams at him when Iruka finally hands him his Leaf Shinobi headband. He can’t remember the last time he’s seen Naruto this happy at something other than being treated to ramen at Ichiraku’s, so Iruka’s happy to see the big smile on his face, the symbol of Konoha on his headband reflecting Iruka’s happiness back at him.

“I’ll treat you to Ichiraku’s later tonight,” Iruka says quietly, and when Naruto’s about to explode out of his skin from happiness, he pats his head and adds, “_ Shh _. I’m so proud of you, Naruto. Now get going, we’ll have plenty of time to talk later.”

After Naruto all but bounces away, Iruka is handing Haruno Sakura her headband with a proud smile. She’s grateful and places it in her hair where the familiar red ribbon has always been, thanks him, before making her way back to the rest of her friends.

Iruka has the headband for the next student already in hand when Uchiha Sasuke comes before him.

The energy radiating from Sasuke is a stark contrast from Naruto’s. Where Naruto had been all but been buzzing out of his skin, Sasuke stands before Iruka as if this were any other day in class. No semblance or pride or excitement on his face like the rest of the students, only a neutral indifference as his dark eyes stare at Iruka expectantly. Of course nobody expected Sasuke to not pass the Academy, being at the top of the class and most skilled out of his classmates.

Sasuke has always been different from the rest of his students in a way similar to Naruto. The both of them always isolated from the rest of their classmates, but while Naruto was ostracized by his peers due to their parent’s influence and their general annoyance towards him, Sasuke differed by never paying any mind to his peers. Everyone, especially the girls, all wanted to be in Sasuke’s eyeline, but the other boy had always seen past them to something not even Iruka could see. After what happened to his family, Iruka could understand to some extent why it’d be difficult for him to connect, but the unease never left him.

Iruka had only wanted the best for his students. It had been easy for him to connect with Naruto once he pushed his own biases to the side—had found a common ground between the two of them in that Kyūbi had left them orphans. Bonding with Naruto usually came with jokes over a bowl of ramen at Ichiraku’s or Iruka nagging him to keep the apartment clean and to take care of himself.

With Sasuke, it had been more difficult. On a shallow note, he can understand what it felt to have everyone of one’s clan to be wiped out in a single night—the sudden loneliness that is born from it. It’s another thing entirely to know the death of one’s family came from your own blood.

As he hands Sasuke his Konoha headband, it’s not pride or glee he sees light up in Sasuke’s dark eyes. There’s a bloodthirsty determination there that no child should have.

“Congratulations, Sasuke,” Iruka says as he places a hand on his shoulder. “I’m proud of you, and can’t wait to see how far you make it next.”

“Thanks to you, Iruka-Sensei,” Sasuke starts as he ties the headband around his forehead, face unreadable, “I’m this much closer to my goal.”

Sasuke walks off then to gather where the rest of his classmates are gathered talking with their families who came to congratulate them, and doesn’t engage. He simply ignores them and disappears into the crowd.

Part of Iruka wonders, and will always wonder years down the road, if he could’ve done more for him.

—

Turning a person into an effective tool is relatively easy. 

A fundamental step is taking the humanity out of the human. Take away the natural connections forged by simply being alive in a world surrounded by others, the ugly and intense emotions that come from having a heart that beats, and break them. Collect only the most useful and necessary pieces littering after that destruction and rebuild a man, a woman, a child, into what beholds the mind’s eye. Fill their mind with a simple belief, a singular goal, and let their entire self hang by the thread of it.

Shinobi are meant to put Konoha above one’s own feelings, beyond their thoughts and dreams and relationships, and even above their own blood. It’s never said outright, but this is the ultimate meaning of the Will of Fire.

Years of observation and experience has granted Hatake Kakashi to recognize the Will of Fire for what it is underneath the surface. It’s easy to recognize from the collective sacrifice of tears, blood, and lives of those he’s laughed and fought beside in order to ensure the village’s safety and upholding the title of one of the most powerful of the Hidden Villages.

What he knows of survival is little more than the collected knowledge of being a well-trained Shinobi, luck, and beneficial opportunities. One of the only true facts he holds above all else in guaranteeing he continues breathing is there's a certain security that comes with complacency. 

Although there are some days where Kakashi wonders if all of this is worth it for the mere sake of breathing rather than living.

Complacency is the reason why Lord Third assigns a team made up of a barely stable and erratic Jinchūriki, a single surviving and traumatized Uchiha, and an average and unremarkable ninja, and Kakashi doesn’t refuse. Not like he can refuse a direct order from the Hokage anyway. Especially considering he’s the only living person who’s able to use a Sharingan following the unfortunate incident with the Uchiha clan. It’s a recipe for disaster only he apparently can bear the weight of, alone, and he’s suddenly reminded of a stressed and dead-eyed Iruka a couple years previously. Apparently it’s Kakashi’s turn to carry the other ninja’s burden.

“Promise me you’ll protect them with everything you have, Kakashi-Sensei,” Iruka had told him following the reveal Kakashi would be taking over. “This group is very special to me.”

Kakashi had nodded in response to the other man in lieu of a promise. Promises were a death wish for a Shinobi, a child’s dream. But he would do his best to guard them with his life, for he had no wish to see children die before him again.

Upon first meeting the three genin under his care, Kakashi couldn’t see what it was that was so special of them. Frankly, they reminded him of every other team he’s failed within the previous years. What he learns of their goals is shallow and in Uchiha’s case, troubling. Teamwork is a foreign concept to their brains. With Uzumaki and Uchiha bickering every minutes, Uzumaki pining over Haruno who has her eyes set on Uchiha, and all three of ignoring the fundamental aspects of what makes a great Shinobi. To everyone else, what makes a great Shinobi is how willing they are to die for their country, but to Kakashi, it’s how effectively a team can be with each other. 

To his surprise, they pass his test. When Kakashi looks at them, he feels as if he’s staring at a memory, distant and one he’s kept locked away for years. It’s the only reason why he continues to keep them under his wing.

Kakashi’s unprepared for how quickly he grows fond of the three brats.

It becomes more than apparent to him during their first official mission in the Land of Waves. Youth brings about a certain naivety and carefree attitude that becomes eroded with age, but being around these three is rather infectious, though he won’t be the first to admit it. All of them see the Land of Waves with a certain vigor Kakashi no longer has, too bone weary from all his years alive, all the violence and horror he’s seen. Training, at least for Kakashi, is entertaining—watching the three of them reminds him of how he had been all those years ago with his own team, if only vaguely. 

The innocence rarely lasts, however. Zabuza and Haku don’t leave them the same as how they came.

“Please don’t hate me. I want to protect someone precious to me. To work for that person, to fight for that person, to make that person’s dream come true. That’s my dream,” Haku says with the voice of a child. “For that, I can become a Shinobi—I can kill you.” 

Naruto’s the loudest to protest, wailing and screaming there has to be something more than that for them. That this isn’t the only way. They can be more than Zabuza’s tool.

“What do you think you are?” Haku asks pointedly. There’s years of wisdom packed into such few words. “You are all the same as me. A tool meant to be used and thrown away by someone else. At least I choose who I’m being used for.”

“I’m nobody’s tool!” Naruto shouts, and the fire in Sasuke’s eyes gives away he feels the same. “Nobody’s using me!”

“The Leaf symbol on your forehead says differently. Are you not your village’s tool? Meant to be used for the position of security and safety of the village? Do you think your village will care if you live or die?” There’s a calmness to Haku’s voice that only manages to irritate Naruther further, and Kakashi is well aware of how explosive Naruto’s anger can be. “I know mine didn’t after they realized what it was I am.”

A kekkai genkai user. The last of their kind following the murder of Haku’s mother by their own father, if he remembers the details correctly. It’s a sad story, but Kakashi has heard of many sad stories.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” Naruto’s hands are balled into tiny indignant fists at his side, shaking. “That may have been the case for your village, but Konoha’s different.” 

“All villages do this,” they say, sounding wise beyond their years. “A person or even an entire clan, if in the way, will not be missed if they are needed to be eliminated. It’s happened to me.” Then they turn to Sasuke, gaze calm and steady. “You are the last of the Uchiha, certainly you can understand what I’m talking about.”

The implication hangs in the air like a suffocating weight.

“My clan was killed by my brother, Itachi,” Sasuke says, a fire in his words. “Konoha tried to stop him, but he managed to escape. I will be the one to kill him, after we’re finished here with you and Zabuza.”

“It’s incredibly convenient a village with the size and power of Konoha would allow such a dangerous mass murder to escape following such a tragedy to a clan of their own.” If looks could kill, Haku would have been killed twice over. “According to what Zabuza told me, he was one kid against the entirety of a village.”

Kakashi is old enough to remember the subjugation of the Uchiha clan before their extinction, and the rumors that floated through Anbu and Shinobi alike afterwards. Talks of a coup d'état from the Uchiha only to be met with a stern warning from the higher officials within their ranks forbid them of discussing such awful implications in the face of a tragedy of one of their greatest clans. 

If he’s being honest with himself, Konoha having a hand in the Uchiha downfall was a possibility Kakashi had allowed to linger in his mind much longer than he should have. It’s not so surprising these rumors have escaped outside the walls of Konoha. 

“Don’t listen to them, Sasuke,” Kakashi mutters, despite the small voice in the back of his head chastizing him. He ignores it. “All Haku wants is an opportunity to allow Zabuza to escape. Do not give in.”

Sasuke nods, already itching to attack.

The fight feels as if it lasts for hours—exchanges of heated words and punches and jutsu uncontained, chakra exploding in the air around them. For a moment, Kakashi believes he’s failed when Sasuke falls to one of Haku’s deadly jutsu, and the angry and hot red chakra emanating from Naruto’s Nine-Tails is the end of Team Seven, the end of the world. Somehow, through coincidence or luck, that ends up not becoming the case. Kakashi is aware, after all, that making use of the right opportunities allow a ninja to flip a dire situation onto its head. Apparently it’s a lesson that’s sunk into his students quite well.

In the end, no amount of words can change the destiny of that day. Haku dies, fulfilling their goal to protect Zabuza’s dream. Zabuza dies in grief over the loss of the only person who’s stood by his side after all the years of violence and betrayal. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke are silent on the way back to Konoha. 

This is the truth all ninja must learn to accept at one point or another: one cannot fight the inevitable how and when of death. All one can really control is whether or not you die protecting someone you cherish above all else. 

Best to learn it early and save oneself from unnecessary suffering.

—

A steady_ drip _echoes in the dark labyrinth of tunnels Naruto finds himself in.

He’s not sure how he ended up here, really. From the way his heart’s pounding against his rib cage, he must’ve fallen or ran in recently, but there are no windows, no openings, nothing but the vast maze of sewers. It’s a miracle he can even see, a faint glow illuminating just enough for Naruto to place one foot in front of another, the water sloshing gently as he pushes his way through. Truthfully, he has no idea where he’s headed—only follows the urge to keep moving forward.

Whispers travel through the pipelines, causing goosebumps to rise along the expanse of his arms, the back of his neck. Naruto stops in his tracks until the water stills. At first he believes it’s a trick of the mind, but the longer he stays, the more defined the whispers become. He can barely make them out.

_Oh, there he is _… A female voice floats its way towards him. _Kurama’s boy._

Another one, softer, gentler, finds its way towards him next.

_Such a faint presence _… _maybe it’s—subconsciously—not even aware _… _We should help _…

_No. _A deeper voice cuts through the rest, strongest. _Gotta—figure this out on his own, y’know?_

None of these voices are any Naruto recognizes. It’s all but impossible to make out the exact words with the constant conversations overlapping, one that seems to be about him. If only he could get closer somehow, he could try and make out what it is they’re saying...

When Naruto takes another step, a cacophony of screams and inhumane roars pierces straight into his brain. All he can hear are the anguished cries clawing from the inside of his head, terror ripped straight from the throats of hundreds, no, it has to be thousands, of people. At the heart of the noise are terrible screeches and roars from something that can’t be human. A monster he can’t see. More than one from the sounds of it.

The overwhelming sounds brings him to his knees, the water splashing as his fingers dig into his skull as he screams, voice raw, in a pathetic attempt to drown out the noise and it brings him no relief. It’s a whirlwhind of chaos in his mind, the pressure of the noise building behind his eyes, filling the expanse of his skull. It feels as if his brain is about to implode.

And just when he thinks he can’t take anymore, horrifying images flash behind his eyes.

Men, women, children—no faces he recognizes—flash in such quick succession he’s barely able to process it all. A man covered in blood, cradling a broken body. Ruins of a village surrounded by sea and mountains with a woman on her knees, her guilt and anguish causing Naruto to choke on air. Monsters. Sharp teeth. Too many tails and dark chakra. Even with his eyes clenched shut, he can’t stop the onslaught of snapshots of horror before him.

“Stop!” Naruto begs, to no one, to anybody, trembling in a pathetic heap on the ground. And then he’s punching the ground, punching himself, desperate to make this nightmare stop. “Wake up! Wake the fuck up!” 

_I told you—too much, too soon _, one of the familiar echoes from before cuts through. _—just a boy, Bee!_

A fox with nine burning tails flashes its red eyes in the dark, like a predator catching sight of its prey for the first time.

_Nothing we can do from where we’re at._

It doesn’t end.

_Wake up _.

Naruto wakes with a dying scream in his throat, eyes wide, darting in the darkness of camp. He’s got a hand clenching his stomach right over the seal on his belly, and even he knows without looking that it’s revealed itself. Sweat drenches his sleeping bag, makes his pajamas stick to his skin as the cool night air sends chills along his skin as he shivers in the dark. It takes several minutes for his breathing to return to something normal, but even then, he refuses to move.

“Had a nightmare?” Kakashi asks, voice low and steady. It takes a couple of seconds for Naruto’s eyes to adjust in the dark, but when it does, he sees Kakashi-Sensei staring at him from where he sits. Apparently it’s still his shift to keep watch. “You look like you’re about to be sick, Naruto.”

Glancing around the campsite, he’s beginning to remember where he is. They’re returning back to Konoha after the Land of Waves. Sakura and Sasuke sleep peacefully beside him, completely unaware. Kakashi-Sensei is safe. A certain ease returns to him, though he can’t quite shake the terrible aftermath of his nightmare.

“I’m fine, Kakashi-Sensei. Just probably had some bad stew or something before we left,” Naruto mutters, unclenching the fingers digging into his stomach. He swallows the lump in his throat. “A hero like me? Getting a nightmare? That’s baby stuff now, a thing of the past.”

“Nightmares don’t care how old you are, Naruto,” Kakashi replies. He hums thoughtfully, facing the direction where the moon lies above them. “I won’t push it if you wish, but I would suggest trying to go back to sleep. Your shift isn’t for another hour.”

Naruto nods limply, settling back into his damp sleeping bag. He focuses on the soft breathing of his teammates beside him, lets his heart lull in time with it until they’re perfectly in sync. 

Sleep does not come for him again that night.

—

Konoha feels different when their team returns from the Land of Waves. 

Naruto, in particular, feels as if he’s experiencing the village with fresh, more experienced eyes. The buildings are the same, the villagers are the same, and the activities and hustle and bustle of life is as he remembers it, but seeing it again after a while away makes everything feel new. He’s missed the energy bustling through the town, the food stands filled to the brim with fresh fruits and meat for everyone to go around. Being in the previous village had made him appreciate the comforts of home he’d taken for granted. Maybe it’s not so much the village has changed, but Naruto has. It’s too soon to tell if that’s a good or a bad thing. 

Team seven is on stand-by until the next mission arrives, so until then he has free reign to do whatever he wants until then. His wallet clinks with the earnings from the mission, and he’s itching to do something fun with the extra money. 

It’s then he spots Sasuke purchasing groceries from one of the nearby storefronts and any ideas about what to do with his day get sent to the back of his mind.

Things have been tense between them since the Land of Waves. It’s one of those unspoken things—don’t talk about it, don’t acknowledge it, and it doesn’t exist—but the more time that’s spent with them avoiding the other’s gaze, the more pull Sasuke has on Naruto’s senses. Part of him wonders what it is that Sasuke wants from him. It’s not like he can read the other’s mind or anything! 

Although Naruto would never admit it out loud, he’d had the slightest hope things between them would be different. A little less antagonistic, a little more of something like friends. Not give up the rivalry completely, but maybe the two of them could hang out or something outside of Team Seven missions. Of course the bastard would still consider himself too good for Naruto after everything that happened between them. It was a stupid idea anyway.

Like hell he’s going to let Sasuke avoid him forever though, and vice-versa. If anything it’s about damn time Naruto gives him a piece of his mind.

When Naruto approaches him, Sasuke doesn’t even so much as glance at him, seemingly already aware of his presence. “You do realize we don’t have to spend time with each other until the next mission, right?” he asks, distantly, as he sniffs one of mangoes in his hand before tossing it in his bag. “Figured you’d spend our break doing something more productive than bothering me.”

“And here I thought after the mission you’d stop being such a dick, but that’d be asking too much from you,” Naruto retorts. There’s a brief moment where Sasuke’s lips curl upwards, but he doesn’t respond, instead moving to the next aisle with Naruto following behind. “I wanted to spar with you.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes, really, asshole,” he says. “What I really wanted to do was maybe go out as a team to celebrate a mission well-done, but considering everyone scattered, I guess sparring with you will have to do. Our fight keeps getting postponed.” There’s a sharp grin on Naruto’s face, playful. 

Sasuke finally glances at him, taking his things to the front in order to pay. “So I’m just your consolation prize?”

“Psh, you know I’ve been wanting to fight you since before the trip.” As they walk out of the store together, Naruto steps right in front of Sasuke, forcing him to stop in his tracks to acknowledge him. “Don’t tell me you’re chicken now after I showed off some of my skills back there.”

“I’m not chicken, idiot,” Sasuke replies indignantly, “I’m busy.”

“When are you not busy then?”

There’s the briefest of pauses as Sasuke glances towards the direction of Konoha’s public library, which makes Naruto’s brows furrow in confusion after he follows his gaze. “If you don’t mind waiting an hour for me to finish my errands, then I’ll happily kick your ass.”

“You’re so fucking full of yourself,” he replies, but accepts the conditions. Naruto follows after Sasuke as they head towards the direction of the library. “What are we even doing here anyway?”

“We?” Sasuke quirks a brow, staring at Naruto again. “When did you and I become ‘we’?”

Naruto shoves him in the shoulder. “Don’t change the subject, asshole.”

“I’m here to check out some records of certain… incidents.”

“Incidents?” Naruto repeats. “What kind of incidents?”

“Clan killings.”

At Sasuke’s answer, Naruto stops walking. There’s a pause in the air as he looks over Sasuke’s face and can’t find a single shred of dark humor in his expression.

In a quieter voice than he’s used to, Naruto asks, “You don’t actually believe what Haku said, right? No way could Konoha have anything to do with what happened to the Uchiha, especially since they were the co-founders of the village. Even Kakashi-Sensei said Haku was desperate and would’ve said anything to save Zabuza at that point.”

“I know that,” Sasuke replies, though there was an edge to his voice Naruto couldn’t quite place. “I’m just researching.”

“Yeah? Researching one of the most depressing topics of mankind for what?”

“Nobody asked you to be here.” Sasuke stares at him just as they’re about to enter the library doors. “If you have a problem, then go. I don’t need you bothering me the entire time anyway.”

It’s tempting, but Naruto _really _wants to spar with Sasuke, so…

“I’m staying,” he replies with a shrug. “Besides, I can catch up on some much needed beauty sleep while you do your boring research stuff.”

Sasuke takes him in and lets out a little _hmph _, somewhere between surprise and amusement lingering in the sound. “Yeah, you’re going to need all your strength for our sparring session,” he replies, eyes teasing. “Don’t think I’ll go easy on you because we’re teammates.”

There’s that unsaid thing between them neither of them had dared approach before this moment. What had happened between Naruto and Sasuke during their last mission, the undeniable fact they were comrades who’d be willing to die for each other. For a moment, Naruto had thought it would go unsaid between them, but the fact Sasuke was the one to bring it up meant something bigger than if Naruto were to.

Naruto grins and his nerves buzz alight with excitement.

“I wouldn’t expect anything less, teme.”

Most of the time during their stay, Naruto watches Sasuke as he researches, pulling up newspaper clippings and taking out gigantic history books about certain clans that were bigger than the size of his head. Like everything he does, Sasuke focuses with such an intensity that’s always been admirable to Naruto, something he’s always wanted to emulate when it came to his own training. Maybe Sasuke is a genius, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t work as hard as Naruto does. It’s hard to believe, but even Naruto can’t deny the truth of it when it’s right in front of him. 

Sometime later he falls asleep while watching him, and when he eventually wakes to the librarian poking him in the center of the forehead to get out of the library, he’s searching for Sasuke. For a moment, rage envelops him at the fact the bastard ditched him, but then someone unceremoniously flicks at the back of his head.

When Naruto nearly snaps his neck back in order to see him, Sasuke is standing there, leaning casually. “Dumbass, time to go home.”

“Hey, what about our sparring match, huh?” Naruto can hear the slur of sleep still laden in his voice, and can’t help the yawn that escapes from him soon after. “What time is it anyway?”

“Midnight,” Sasuke answers. “We’ll have to reschedule.”

“_ Why _does this keep happening?”

“Usuratonkachi,” Sasuke begins with a certain fondness in his tired voice, “Let’s get out of here.”

It’s only because Naruto is tired does he leave with Sasuke without _too much_ protest.

—

Summonings were tedious in the face of a man who did not have the will to enact what must be done for the best interests of Konohagakure. 

If there’s anything Shimaru Danzō despises more than the Third Hokage’s weakness, it was the fact he was expected to comply with Sarutobi’s whim like a well-trained pet. Performative as it was, Danzō understood the role he played at being the Hokage’s hidden right hand, though as the years passed behind the shadows, his impatience merely increased. 

However, time and patience were required in order for the long, drawn out game to yield the results Danzō knows it would given a little more time.

"Following Gatō's death after Team Seven's mission in the Land of Waves, the drug lords are all vying for the gap of power he's left behind. There's already rumors of gang wars throughout the areas surrounding the Land of Waves," Sarutobi drolls on, Danzō only catching the last bit of the other man's report. "We can expect a large influx of requests for Konoha Shinobi requests during this time."

"There's always a profit to be made in the face of war," Danzō utters. "It's important to remember that, Lord Hokage."

Nodding thoughtfully at his words, Sarutobi lets out a deep sigh. Across from where he sat, the Hokage sighs over several piles of paperwork, stroking the length of his beard. One of Sarutobi’s nervous ticks. “Onto the more pressing matters at hand. These reports are frankly disturbing,” he says, quiet and sullen. “Are you sure they’re accurate?”

“They are as accurate as they can be,” Danzō replies. “Granted, there may be more missing ninja that are simply unreported. We know how he targets those who generally are easy to disappear, people who won’t be missed.”

Sarutobi leans back in his Hokage’s seat and says nothing for a long while. Every time this topic is brought up, the regret and grief flashes across his face as clear as day. It’s pitiful.

If it weren’t for Sarutobi’s weakness, Orochimaru wouldn’t have grown to the tumor he is today.

“I want to send a team to investigate the missing nin within the Land of Fire,” Sarutobi announces, sitting a little straighter. “A reconnaissance mission of sorts. Maybe with more Intel, we’ll be able to find where he’s hiding and strike first.”

Danzō nods in agreement, though there’s no way he’d ever allow for that to happen without fully calculating the risks of such a decision.

“Tell me, do we have any available jounin to send out?” 

“No, most of the jounin teams are out in preparation for the upcoming Chunin exams,” Danzō replies. He pauses long enough for it to be convincing. “What about Kakashi’s team?”

“You can’t be serious,” the other man declares, shock written into his face. “We can’t send genin after Orochimaru. Even Kakashi wouldn’t be able to handle a fight with him.”

“It’s like you said, Hokage-Sama,” Danzō says cooly despite the bitter taste of calling the man before him _Hokage _, “This isn’t a mission to apprehend Orochimaru, it’s simply a reconnaissance mission. No direct interaction will be necessary.”

Plus he has to adhere to a request with a former associate. It was apart of Itachi's deal in leaving the village after all.

Sarutobi hums thoughtfully, staring out of the windows lining the office. After a moment, he finally says, “I’ll have to think about this before I come to any conclusion. Thank you for the information, Danzō, you are dismissed.”

After he leaves the office, Danzō feels as if he can breathe again without the presence of the Hokage nauseating him. It’s a short walk back to his prestigous home in the center of town, and by the time he arrives home, the sun has already set over the mountains. From the second story of his home, the windows in his bedroom show the village beneath him. Konohagakure glows from the lanterns and lights of businesses thriving within the night, the murmur of the town he loves existing in a trepid peace.

Behind him, the floorboards creak underneath sudden weight. Danzō doesn’t turn or startle, for he’s expecting the intruder long before they made their presence known.

“Anything to report?” Danzō asks, watching the city seemingly come alive below. “I don’t have all night.”

“Uchiha Sasuke has been reported to be investigating clan cullings,” the Root member replies, brief and to the point. “We are unsure of his purpose, but we felt it urgent to report to you, Lord Danzō.”

Danzō turns, slow and methodical, and stares at the masked man in his home. This information allows him insight, and could spell trouble for his future plans if left unchecked. Apparently it had been a smart move to keep watch of Uchiha Sasuke after all. 

“Very well.”

“Is there anything else to be done?”

“For the moment, no,” Danzō replies. “Keep watching him for the time being. You’re dismissed.”

The masked man nods and disappears into the dark of night, leaving him alone in his bedroom. All the signs are pointing to something building, he can feel it in his veins, and maybe this _thing _that’s bubbling under the surface is just what he needs to move forward.

_Let’s just see what this Uchiha does, _Danzō thinks _, Before I figure out how he needs to be dealt with._

—

One of Team Seven’s D-rank missions brings them towards the country-side with open skies and the smell of shit burning in their noses. Naruto’s always imagined a farm to be peaceful and filled with clean air, but it’s hot, the sound of flies buzzing is maddening, and he’s absolutely sick of this one particular chicken who hasn’t stopped pecking him since he’s arrived this morning. 

“I’m going to kill you,” he mutters darkly, eyes narrowed to the beady eyed bird who’s staring at him from in front of the chicken coup. “I’m going to kill you, skin you, and eat you. We’ll see who’s laughing then.”

“Are you threatening… a chicken?” Sasuke asks, disbelief in his voice. “It can’t understand you, moron.”

“Oh, it can, Sasuke. It can and it is and I can’t stand this fucking place. If I have to stay here _one _more night…”

“Quit complaining!” Sakura yells, swatting him with her book she’s had her nose stuck in every time they were allowed a break. She ignores him even when Naruto pouts and rubs his temple. “I can’t pay attention to this last part because you’re so loud, Naruto!”

Naruto leans over to catch a look at the book she’s reading. In the cover, there’s a picture of a tall and hunky guy with dark hair and piercing eyes, who sorta looks like Sasuke if he squints and tilts his head a couple inches to the side, with his hair blowing in the wind and a girl wrapped around his torso looking like she’d fall over if she wasn’t plastered to him. It hasn’t left her side all day, and he’s briefly reminded of Kakashi’s gross book he reads in his spare time and blanches.

“Are you reading porn!?” Naruto yells out loud, no care in the world. “Here?!”

The book slams shut immediately. When Naruto glances at Sasuke, he’s wide-eyed and hiding a laugh, hands in his pockets. Ever so slowly he turns his head towards Sakura, whose face is as red as the tomatoes she was picking earlier, gaze dark and murderous and intently on him.

“You disgusting pervert! There’s other books in the world besides the ones Kakashi-Sensei reads!” Sakura screams. Naruto bolts, but he can hear Sakura chasing him through the fields. “Why would you ask a lady a question like that!? This is a romance novel, you absolute idiot! I should strangle you for asking that in front of Sasuke of all people! Come here!”

Naruto trips over a particularly large rock hidden underneath the tall grasses, and it’s over. Sakura catches up to him and knocks him effectively on his ass, smacking him in the arm with her folded book. It doesn’t hurt, not really, but he definitely gets the message. In the distance, he can hear Sasuke laughing at the two of them.

“Apologize!”

“Fine, fine, I’m sorry, Sakura-Chan!” Naruto relents, raising his hands up in the air in surrender. “Can you get off me now!?”

Sakura gives a small, indignant _hmph _before getting up, book to her chest as she marches back to the farm house. For a moment, Naruto simply lays there, wondering what the hell is so bad about asking a girl if she reads that kinda stuff. 

The sun dims and when Naruto opens his eyes, Sasuke’s standing over him with the biggest shit-eating grin on his face Naruto’s ever seen. The absolutely bastard.

“You need any help getting up?”

“No!” Naruto replies, forcing himself up. “Thanks for absolutely nothing!”

“And miss the show of a lifetime? I’m proud for doing nothing then,” Sasuke says, smug. “It’s not my fault you piss off every girl by opening your big mouth.”

“Uh, shut up. You’re so arrogant, y’know? All these girls just fawn themselves over you and it’s just _so _easy for you.” Naruto waves his arms around as he picks off the pieces of grass stuck in his shirt. He raises his voice and flutters his lashes in his mocking attempt of the usual girls he hears around class. “ _Ooh, Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke! He’s soooo hot! So mysterious! So cool! _I’m so sick of hearing it!”

Sasuke huffs, crosses his arms and turns his face away. His cheeks are turning a dusty rose color—probably from too much sun. “You act like I do it on purpose or something. I don’t care about the girls who like me.”

“Psh, yeah right,” Naruto replies with a roll of his eyes. “That just makes you sound even more obnoxious, y’know.”

“I don’t even like girls!”

“Uh-huh, sure you don’t.” Naruto crosses his arms over his chest, turning his nose up at Sasuke. “Who wouldn’t like a bunch of girls always giving them attention all the time? Someone crazy, that’s who!”

Sasuke sighs deeply in his chest, as if he’s aged a hundred years in the past several hours he’s been out here.

“You really are the biggest idiot.”

The bell within the farmhouse rings alerting them lunch is being served, and the two of them start their walk back, bickering back and forth. When they make it inside, Sakura’s already finished with the first book and working fast on the sequel, eager to see who the prince ends up with. 

—

After a couple days of radio silence, Kakashi-Sensei announces their next C-rank mission within the Land of Fire. Naruto’s somewhat grateful for the town of Shinjuku to be so close by to Konoha, because after all the travelling to the Land of Waves he’s sufficiently over long-distance missions. 

They head out at dawn, much to Naruto’s disappointment. It’s too early in the morning, with the sun barely breaking only half an hour ago, but the air is cool as they make their way along the main road. He’s been itching for another another mission, growing more and more jittery the longer they stay in Konoha with only training keeping him busy. Going out on missions was the real experience booster he needed in order to become strong enough to beat Sasuke in a match, and of course, eventually become Hokage.

Up ahead, Sakura’s firmly planted at Sasuke’s side, excitedly babbling to him about what she spent her time doing during their days break. Occasionally Sasuke would acknowledge her with a nod or a couple word response, and inevitably Sakura would get that pouty look on her face that made her look like a pufferfish whenever she didn’t get the response she was hoping for from him. It made a fire in him burn, partly because he understood how Sakura felt in not getting Sasuke’s full attention, partly because he couldn’t understand how Sasuke could outright ignore someone as great and pretty as Sakura. 

Naruto’s a second away from giving Sasuke a piece of his mind when Kakashi grabs at the back of his collar and shakes his head tiredly. He deflates and lets himself fall behind so he’s walking side-by-side with Kakashi.

“Kakashi-Sensei, I know we’re looking for missing nin but can you tell us more about the mission?” Naruto asks with a whine. “Or at least when we’re about to get to the village? My feet hurt.”

Only a couple of steps ahead, Sasuke’s voice rings out, “We’ve only been walking for an hour and your feet already hurt? Lazy.”

“Shut up! Who was even talking to you, Sasuke?!”

“I was!” Sakura replies, hand waving high in the air as if she were in the middle of a classroom rather than backpacking in the forest. “We were in the middle of a _very_important conversation before you distracted us, Naruto.”

“I’ll debrief everyone when we’re about to arrive to the village,” Kakashi replies unfazed by the voices surrounding him, flipping another page of his _Icha-Icha Paradise_novel. “Which won’t be there until tomorrow at the earliest. We’ll be making camp before we arrive to rest up so we can start our mission as soon as possible. We need to make it back to Konoha before the Chunin Exams begin.”

Naruto groans before he lets out a sigh of defeat. When they had been summoned for this mission, the Third Hokage had asked for the three of them to leave so he could discuss more details with Kakashi alone, and he hasn’t cracked since. Apparently they were all going to have to wait until they arrived at Shinjuku.

They continue to walk until the sun first starts to edge towards the horizon, and Kakashi-Sensei officially gave them the signal to set up camp. It didn’t take too long before everything was up and running, sunlight still out by the time the fire had started. Naruto and Sakura had been assigned to gather enough firewood to last the night while Sasuke had stayed behind with Kakashi-Sensei in order to tend the fire and help prepare dinner. By the time the two were on their way back to camp, the sun had nearly set completely.

“Don’t worry, Sakura-Chan,” Naruto offers with a prideful grin. “If you get scared of the dark, I’ll protect you.”

“I don’t need you to protect me, Naruto.”

“But—”

“If it’s going to be anyone who needs protecting, it’ll probably be you,” Sakura says with a devilish smirk. “I remember how you screamed like a girl at the big beetle that crawled in your sleeping bag on the last mission.”

“I didn’t scream!”

“Did too.”

“It was a big beetle,” Naruto protests, and before he could finish the rest of his argument, he lost his train of thought due to the fact their camp now had more people than when they left it. “Who the hell are these people?”

“We’re travellers,” one of them announces, just as Kakashi says, “They’re guests.”

Naruto glances at the three extra people surrounding their campfire. The one who spoke was a burly man with a balding head and a long graying beard, who apparently seems to be the leader. Next to him is a woman around his age with flowers stuck within the braids of her hair. The last person is another woman, younger than the first, with dark hair and lips as red as blood staring at the fire. 

“Technically, we’re professors conducting a research trip,” the elder woman says with a wrinkly smile. “But I suppose travellers works just as fine.”

“Professors, hm?” Kakashi’s voice rings out. “Tell me where it is you’re studying from.”

“Boring,” Naruto mutters, earning him an elbow to the gut from Sakura.

“I’m Kai, professor of Anthropology. This here’s my wife Hama, the chairwoman of political sciences—” The man gestured to the elderly woman beside him, then towards the woman with the red painted lips, “—and here’s our colleague and good friend Ming, a professor of history of Shinobi and mythology. All of us teach at Kumogakure’s university, which we’re all travelling back to.”

Kakashi hums thoughtfully. “I didn’t realize the Village Hidden in the Clouds allow civilians to learn about such matters of the Shinobi, let alone teach it.”

“Us _civilians _are more than capable of understanding the ways of Shinobi, considering how much they affect our lives,” Ming retorts, spitting the word civilians like acid on her tongue. “We’ve made great strides in the past decade to bring Shinobi and non-Shinobi closer together.”

“I didn’t mean any offense,” Kakashi says. It’s the closest to an apology Naruto’s ever heard. “Only curious.”

“We understand,” says Hama, looking pointedly at Ming who ignores her gaze. “Thank you again for allowing us to make camp with you and your genin.”

“Mhm. Saw you fine Shinobi and figured there’d be no better spot to camp for the night,” Kai adds. “Lots of mighty scary things in this forest, ya know.”

“Oh yeah?” Naruto asks, disbelief in his voice. “Like what?”

“Maybe after dinner we’ll share a couple of the stories I’ve accumulated during my studies,” Ming says with a fire in her eyes that lessens when she throws her gaze towards Kakashi. “If it’s okay with your Sensei, of course.”

Kakashi raises his hands in a display of peace, or that’s what it looks like. “After dinner is fine with me, but we have to be up early for our mission. Besides, I am rather interested to hear from such a scholar as yourself.”

“Hm,” Ming hums with a pleased smile spreading across her lips. “I’ll save my most interesting recollection I’ve gathered from this trip then.”

Around the fire while they ate, the group that joined shares their adventures of their travels to the rest of the team. Hama braids Sakura’s hair up into a pretty crown of braids that highlights her face, and she glows in the firelight. Naruto and Sasuke eat their meals rather quickly, anxiously awaiting a story from the woman who promised something terrifying. 

When Ming finishes her food, she wipes her mouth with a napkin and glances around the group with a playful look in her eye. “Now, what I’m about to tell you is a story Kai has gathered during our trip from a long lost civilization, much older than we are,” she announces, her voice lilting in storyteller mode. “From what we’ve been able to translate, it’s a terrifying one. Are you sure you brave shinobi can handle it?”

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke all give their signs of agreement while Kakashi continues to look onward, vaguely curious.

“A long time ago, there once was a terrifying beast called the Ten-Tails,” Ming says with an energy that brings all attention towards like gravity. “This is the story of how it nearly destroyed the entire world.”

All the excitement drains from Naruto’s face.

Ming starts speaking, but the words leave her mouth as if they’re underwater. He can’t focus on any part of it. Every part of his body buzzes with a hot anger, jaw clenched tight, and he can’t bare to hear another word leave past her stupid mouth.

Halfway during the middle of Ming’s story, Naruto gets up and leaves. He has no idea where he’s speeding towards, only that it’s far away from the campfire and the stupid, invading travellers as he can get.

From a distance he can hear Sakura calling after him and Kakashi reassuring her that Naruto just needed some space. 

Eventually he finds himself at a clearing when the light of the fire is no longer able to be seen, before he ends up lost and unable to find his way back to the campsite. The stars shine down on him as he grunts in frustration, kicking at a few of the branches that had fallen from the trees above him. His heart bangs loud in his ears and all he wants is to punch something, anything, to lessen this stupid and ugly feeling within the pit of his gut.

They had called him a monster. A demon. One part of the culmination of all things wretched and evil. All he was to these strangers was a horror story used to make children terrified of the dark. 

Of course he understood they couldn’t have known he had Kyūbi sealed away inside him. It didn’t mean it didn’t still hurt.

A twig snaps behind him.

“Go away!” Naruto yells, clutching his belly where the seal lay hidden underneath the layers of his clothes. “I don’t wanna hear anymore of that stupid story!”

“I didn’t peg you as someone to be scared of a little ghost story meant for kids.”

Naruto whips his head around at the familiar voice and sees Sasuke standing a few steps behind him, arms crossed over his chest in that irritating and condescending way he always holds himself. His nostrils flare as his hands ball into fists at the sight of him.

“I’m not scared, asshole,” he spits out, arms shaking. “I’m pissed off.”

Sasuke tilts his head, brows furrowing slightly as he stares at him with that dumb confused look. “About what?”

And because Naruto can’t bring himself to answer with the truth, he merely says, “Everything!”

The anger gets stuck in his throat and because there’s nothing else he can say, nothing else he can do, he plops down on the floor with his arms crossed over his chest. He wants to punch the ground, kick and scream until this ugliness weighing him down finally relents. Acting like this in front of Sasuke is childish, he knows, but he can’t stop himself once he’s already started going. 

Sasuke on the other hand stares at him unfazed. After a beat, he moves until he’s sitting next to Naruto and doesn’t say anything, lets the silence envelop them as Naruto’s breathing settles into something less erratic. 

Naruto’s the one to break the silence when the quiet eventually grates on him and snaps, “Aren’t you going to call me an idiot and tell me go back to camp? Make fun of me? Why the hell are you even here, Sasuke?”

“I don’t think that’s going to be any help, loser,” he says, without the usual heat behind his words. “To be honest, I’m here to make sure you don’t get lost.”

With a scoff, Naruto turns his head pointedly away from Sasuke. As he glances around the unfamiliar clearing, he gives in to the fact he may not be as sure of where he is as he thought he was. 

After a moment, Naruto hesitantly asks, “You know how to get back to camp from here?”

Sasuke lets out a huff of a breath that almost sounds like a laugh. When Naruto peeks back towards him, he sees the other’s smallest of smiles on his face. Something about it loosens the tight coil in the pit of his belly. “Of course I do, moron.”

“Dickface.”

They settle into another bout of comfortable silence. It takes several minutes before Naruto’s heart rate settles into something resembling normal, and the ugly feeling from before leaves him feeling tired and spent. Though he’d never admit it aloud, Sasuke’s presence had distracted him from the rage and pain he’d felt only moments earlier. It didn’t make any sense, but rarely anything did when it came to him.

Naruto steals a glance of Sasuke, watches him as he watches the stars above them, the light of the moon illuminating his features despite the darkness. This isn’t the first time Naruto’s felt this at ease with Sasuke. There’s a calmness to him that makes Naruto gravitate to him, like a lighthouse in the middle of a ravaging storm. Sasuke must feel him staring, because he slowly brings his gaze to meet with Naruto’s own, a curious look in his eye.

“What?” Sasuke asks, and waits expectantly for Naruto’s reasoning for his eyes on him. 

Instead, Naruto blurts out the question, “What do you know about the Nine-Tails?”

Sasuke shrugs. “I know it attacked the village thirteen years ago. Apparently I was only a couple of months old when it happened. From what my mother told me, a few of our clan died while protecting the village, but I never knew them. That’s all I really know anyway.”

“Do you know who the current Jinchūriki is?”

“No, and I don’t care,” Sasuke answers. There’s a strange look on his face as he looks over Naruto’s face, as if searching for the hidden source to this weird line of questioning. “Why are you asking me all these questions?”

“I don’t know,” he says, chewing the inside of his cheek. “Guess I wanna know what you think.”

“Didn’t realize you cared about what I think.”

“I don’t,” Naruto lies. “I hate you, remember?”

If Sasuke doesn’t believe him, he has the decency to not bring it up now. 

For the first time since he’s found out he’s had the Nine-Tails sealed inside him, Naruto has the urge to confess to Sasuke what he is. It’s a strange and terrifying urge he’s unsure how to deal with. Of all the people he could confess to, Sasuke should have been the last person he’d want to tell, but he’d said it himself—he didn’t care who the current Jinchūriki was. 

When Sasuke had stared him down at the Academy, fist raised and aiming for his face, there was a hatred in his eyes not meant for him. Naruto had held onto tight, close to his heart, for so long he’s afraid of losing it.

But what if he didn’t?

“Naruto,” Sasuke interrupts his thoughts, stretching his arms with a little _pop _of his shoulders. “As much fun as this is sitting with you in the dark, we have to wake up early for the mission tomorrow, remember? We should head back.” He’s leaning his weight on his hands, ready to stand up when Naruto makes a quick grab of his wrist and holds him firmly in place.

“Wait—” Naruto doesn’t let go, not even when Sasuke’s gaze flickers from where his fingers are gripped tight around his wrist to where Naruto’s staring at him wide-eyed. “I want to tell you something important. As your teammate, I think you should know. I _want _you to know.”

“Okay,” he says, slowly. “Spit it out then.”

Naruto takes a shaky breath and remembers how much he’s hated putting himself out there like this in the past, remembers every time it’s blown up in his face. He hopes this time it’s different.

“I’m the Jinchūriki.” Naruto stares right into Sasuke’s eyes, searching. “That’s why I hated that story. I wasn’t scared, I’m angry and pissed. All anyone will ever see me as is a fucking monster and I _hate _it.”

For a long moment, Sasuke says nothing and Naruto hates himself for it. How naive could he have been to believe this time could be any different from all those times before? What the hell was he expecting? Of course nobody in their right mind would be okay with their teammate telling them they had Kyūbi trapped inside them.

Sasuke takes a slow inhale of breath, and Naruto thinks he’s about to point that hatred at him, scream or yell or hit him, but instead he merely says, “That… makes a lot of sense, actually.”

Naruto blinks, dumbfounded. “What?”

“Why everyone avoided you like the plague, besides you generally being annoying,” Sasuke explains his line of thinking. The corner of his mouth quirks upwards. “Plus I’ve been wondering why we’ve been on the same team for so long now, and it finally all adds up. Only someone with a Sharingan can control the Nine-Tails.”

It takes Naruto unfortunately a couple long minutes for it to finally make all sense to him, but there’s only one part of what Sasuke’s saying that catches his attention. Besides, of course, the fact he’s taking all this news in stride.

“You’re still hung up on why I’d be put on the same team as you!? Seriously!?” Naruto’s voice is so high it almost hurts his own ears. “After I _saved _your ass?”

“Technically, if you hadn’t intervened with Haku, I wouldn’t have gotten hit by their spikes or needed my ass saved.”

“Oh, fuck you, Sasuke. I hate you so fucking much, you prickling asshole sent straight from hell.”

Sasuke laughs. A real laugh, ringing in Naruto’s ears like a forbidden song. It’s the first time he’s ever heard Sasuke laugh, not just in front of him, but in general. Naruto’s so shocked, the indignant anger he felt moments earlier melts away and soon he’s following in Sasuke’s footsteps. Both of them laughing under the moonlight.

Naruto’s never felt this light in his life.

Once they settle after their laughing fit, Sasuke bumps his shoulder against Naruto’s. “Besides,” Sasuke starts, slow and not looking in Naruto’s general direction. He’s picking at a couple blades of grass, carefully disinterested in Naruto, but he must feel Naruto’s gaze on him. “You’re more than just a Jinchūriki.”

The words make Naruto’s throat go unbelievably tight, and when he swallows the lump in his throat, he has to put effort not to choke.

“Huh?”

“You’re annoying, first of all. A member of Team Seven. Loud and obnoxious—”

Naruto frowns. “Are you trying to make me feel worse?”

“Let me finish, moron,” Sasuke snaps, eyes directly meeting Naruto’s. He closes his mouth and settles, and once Sasuke realizes he won’t interrupt anymore, he continues. “Being a Jinchūriki is only one part of you. You’re Naruto over-all. Don’t forget that.”

Naruto stares at him and doesn’t say a word, his heart feeling far too large for his body. It’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to him, and the fact it’s coming from Sasuke? This almost feels like a dream.

“Are you finally ready to get out of here?” Sasuke asks, after Naruto remains speechless. He’s got his head turned away from him, frowning. “I’m cold and tired of waiting for your ass to stop moping around.”

“Can we have a couple more minutes?” Naruto clears his throat, crossing his arms over his shoulders.. “I’m not ready to go back yet.”

Sasuke hums thoughtfully, before he eventually nods and says, “Sure.”

They sit their together under the night sky, content and comfortable in the mutual silence. Eventually they end up falling asleep despite their minimal efforts, on top of the forest underbrush and leaves as their makeshift bedding.

When Kakashi-Sensei and Sakura find them in the morning, they’re still asleep side-by-side without a care in the world. 

—

Shinjuku is a small town recently developed within the past several years. Kakashi realizes that’s the reason why he hasn’t heard of it until this mission.

The objective of their mission is simple: find information on the missing ninja. Last sightings were confirmed in this town, so somewhere, someone, had the Intel they were looking for. Unofficially and unaware by the genin on his team, he was looking for clues as to where Orochimaru was hiding.

Expectedly, no one in town has any information they’re willing to give up. Kakashi’s not surprised. This is a small town with minimal protection against any outside threats, and if there’s no reason to be involved in issues regarding ninja, they wouldn’t jump in at the opportunity to expose themselves. Unfortunately for him and the rest of the team, that makes their job that much more difficult.

Kakashi sighs. He’s not the only one who’s growing more and more frustrated with their lack of results. To his left, Naruto and Sakura are bickering about Naruto yelling at one of the elder villagers to give him all the information he had on the missing nin, and Sasuke looked as if he were on the verge of snapping at either one of them. They’ve spent half the day interrogating the entire town and only received information on who serves the best rice cakes in the village. Apparently the title belongs to a man named Riku who’s stand is somewhere at the edge of town.

“We’re taking a break,” Kakashi announces, effectively shutting up all arguments from the rest of his team, thankfully. “After we get some lunch, we’ll be in a better state to continue our mission. Let’s go.”

They walk towards the center of town where the food stands all collectively gravitate towards, yelling over each other about who has the better deals and food, all trying to make their money. For the most part, everything appears normal until Naruto and Sakura split from the rest of the group to approach a woman who’s selling meat at one of the nearby stands. Kakashi is well attuned to his surroundings, has lived long enough to where he can sense the slightest shift of chakra and know when he’s being followed. 

From what he can tell, there’s two of them. If they’d been following him all day and he’s only now been aware of them, they were especially skilled in masking their chakra and decided now was the best time to reveal themselves.

Kakashi can feel Sasuke’s eyes staring at him, serious and unblinking, already aware of the way Kakashi’s body has tensed up. Always observant. “What is it?”

“We’re being followed,” he informs, calmly. Last thing they need is to give off the fact they’re aware of their pursuers. “Tell Naruto and Sakura to be on alert and be prepared for an altercation. _Discreetly _.”

Sasuke nods and then he’s off. From here, he can keep an eye on the three of them as he scans the perimeter for anything out of place, someone who doesn’t belong. It doesn’t help that he doesn’t know exactly what he’s looking for. 

A man he doesn’t recognize in black robes with red clouds outlined in white is staring at him as he walks purposefully towards him, the teeth of his smile sharp and deadly. Alarms go off in his head. Kakashi’s already reaching for his shuriken, waiting for the random villagers to pass by so he can strike before he gives the enemy the first chance. Before he can wrap his fingers around the weapon, a strong hand grips his shoulder and turns him so he’s staring right into blood red eyes.

“We were just about to make a visit to Konoha,” Itachi says, voice eerily calm and even. No emotion in those dead familiar eyes of his. “But it seems like the village brought you all to us.”

Kakashi barely has time to call out a warning to his students before he succumbs to the genjutsu.

—

When Naruto turns his head, Kakashi’s passed out on the floor and two men in dark robes are rapidly approaching the three of them. One of them looks eerily similar to Sasuke.

From the way Sasuke tenses and already has a kunai in hand, Naruto can take a guess on who the man with the dark hair and red eyes is supposed to be.

“Uchiha Itachi,” Sakura whispers under her breath. “That’s him, isn’t it?”

Nobody answers her.

Sasuke steps in front of the both of them, eyes hard and stance coiled ready to attack, glancing between the two men with apprehension. “What the hell do you want, Itachi?” He growls his brother’s name. “Actually, I don’t care what your reasons are. All I care about is killing you.”

“Relax, little brother. I’m not here for you,” Itachi says, voice oddly quiet and smooth compared to Sasuke’s. When his red eyes meet Naruto’s, a shiver shoots down his spine. “I’m here for the Jinchūriki.”

Everything goes silent, and immediately all eyes are on Naruto. Sakura’s eyes are as wide as saucers as she brings a hand to cover her mouth, shock permereating all of her features. Naruto’s face burns. Sasuke does not move, instead only plants his feet more firmly into the ground.

“Too bad,” Sasuke retorts. “Naruto’s ours and he’s not going anywhere.”

Sakura nods, pulling her own kunai out. A little dazed, Naruto follows suit. If there wasn’t a fight about to break out, he’d hug them both.

“God, he really is your little brother, isn’t he?” The other man in the robes says. He reaches behind him and pulls out a sword as big as he is. “I’ll let you have a little reunion while I deal with the other two.”

“Remember, the Akatsuki need the Jinchūriki alive, Kisame.”

“I know that,” Kisame replies indignantly. “Alive gives me lots of options.”

“Stay the hell away from him,” Sasuke yells. “You’re not taking anybody else I care about from me again. I won’t let you.”

Before Itachi can respond, Sasuke’s already charging towards him, blade swiping at his brother and not so much as even cutting the flowing cloth. The struggle lasts only a few seconds. Easily, Itachi has his hands gripping Sasuke’s throat, lifting him as his legs kick at the air as his fingers claw at Itachi’s grip fruitlessly. 

Naruto and Sakura stare, wide-eyed and terrified. 

“You’re still weak,” Itachi whispers to Sasuke, unrelenting. “It’s because you don’t have enough hatred in you.”

When Itachi pulls pack, his pupils swim in the iris of his eyes. Sasuke suddenly goes limp in his hold, body still as stone. Itachi drops him unceremoniously and steps over him as he approaches Naruto and Sakura.

“Don’t be as foolish as my little brother,” Itachi says. “Come with me without struggle and I won’t have to force my hand.”

Itachi only manages to take a step forward until an old man with crazy white hair steps in front of Naruto and Sakura. 

“No worries, kids,” the man says, face over his shoulder to look at him, “I think I’ve seen enough.”

“Oh, so now you decide to step in?!” Naruto yells, gaze shifting from this old asshole who only thought now was the right time to intervene and the shape of Sasuke lying face-down in the dirt. “Who the hell are you? Where were you five minutes ago? Don’t just stand there, old man, do something!”

“Jiraiya,” Kisame says, letting the name roll off his tongue slowly. “One of the Leaf’s legendary sannin. Just our luck, eh, Itachi?”

Naruto does a double-take over the man in front of him. One of the legendary sannin in the flesh. He must be dreaming.

Except when Sakura elbows him in the ribs and casts her gaze on his weapon to remind him to focus, Naruto decidedly relents that he is in fact not dreaming. 

“I’ll take care of this swiftly,” Jiraiya promises with a grin. “Then we’ll take care of your sensei and teammate.”

The fight lasts only for a few minutes. Jiraiya unleashes power Naruto’s never seen before, a certain strength that has him wide-eyed and mouth agape. Itachi and Kisame can hold their own, but after minutes of Jiraiya’s onslought, even they know it’s in their best interest to retreat. 

Naruto bolts right towards Sasuke the minute Itachi and Kisame are gone, while Sakura runs to Kakashi-Sensei. He’s still breathing raggedly, his pupils behind his eyelids moving back and forth rapidly. When he places a hand to Sasuke’s chest, his heart is threatening to beat out of his chest.

“What the hell happened to him?” Naruto cries out, shifting Sasuke so his head rests on Naruto’s lap. “I’ve never seen him like this before. Do something for him, old man. Sasuke’s _dying _.”

“Sasuke isn’t dying,” Kakashi’s voice rings in his ears, and Naruto snaps his head in the direction. Exhausted and leaning against Sakura who’s all but holding up his weight, Kakashi finally approaches. “But I’m guessing right now he wishes he was.”

“What is this Kakashi-Sensei?” 

“A powerful genjutsu called Tsukuyomi,” he explains, unable to hide the pain in his voice. “It’s a technique where a Sharingan user can transport anyone into a world of their design. Where seconds can feel like days and days can feel like years. Right now, Sasuke’s probably in a world of hell.”

“Is there anything we can do for him, sensei?” Sakura asks. “Maybe we can heal his mind if we take him back to Konoha.”

“There’s only one person I know of that can possibly help your friend,” Jiraiya says. “And she’s one hell of a bitch to find.”

Sakura frowns at Jiraiya, and a realization crosses Kakashi’s face without so much as a mention of this woman’s name. 

“Who the hell is this lady?” Naruto asks, clutching Sasuke a little tighter to his chest. “I’ll look for her myself if I have to. We gotta help Sasuke.”

Jiraiya laughs heartily and Naruto narrows his eyes at him. 

It’s going to be a _long _day.

—

Jiraiya is nothing like what Naruto expects a legendary sannin to be.

Despite Naruto’s protests, they eventually split into two groups: the first being Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke making their way back to Konoha, and the second being Jiraiya and Naruto in their quest to find Lady Tsunade. Apparently, another legendary sannin with medical expertise that would put the rest of the Medic nin in Konoha to shame.

When he first learned of the legendary sannin in the Academy, he had expected a sannin to hold themselves strong, head held high and oozing honor from every pore. Jiraiya happens to be anything but honorable. 

“So, you were heading to Konoha before the Akatsuki attacked… What for? Super cool ninja sannin stuff, I bet,” Naruto rattles on as they walk along one of the unfamiliar dirt paths. “That’s the name of their creepy, weirdo organization, right? Akatsuki.”

“That is their name,” Jiraiya replies with a nod of affirmation. “I was actually heading over to do some reasarch for my next novel, actually, if you must know.”

It takes Naruto less than a day for him to understand that to Jiraiya research means peeping on unsuspecting women. If Iruka were here, he would’ve gotten a scolding, but since he wasn’t, Naruto had the honor of doing so. In front of all the women at the bathhouse they were visiting too.

And entrusting him with the new nickname of Pervy Sage. 

“You know, Pervy Sage, the Chunin Exams are coming up and I bet there’s lots of cool stuff you can teach me while we looking for Lady Tsunade,” Naruto starts, not for the first time in their travels. Every other time he’s brought up some form of training, Pervy Sage has ultimately brushed him off. What the pervert doesn’t know is that he’s persistent. “Might as well be doing something useful while we’re looking.”

“I’m the one who’s doing most of the searching,” Jiraiya shoots back. “The only reason I let you come with me was because you wouldn’t shut up about it.”

“Because it’s the perfect opportunity!”

“According to you.”

“That’s right.” Naruto nods. After Pervy Sage refuses to acknowledge him, he whines, loud. “You know, you’re pretty much the worst sensei ever. I bet when you were back in Konoha all your pupils hated you.”

Jiraiya snorts. “Funnily enough, the Fourth Hokage actually appreciated my teachings.” He glances over Naruto, giving him a once over. “You sort of remind me of him. Moreso in looks than actual personality, you couldn’t be anymore opposite of him..”

“I do?” Naruto’s eyes light up. He remembers the outline of the Fourth Hokage’s face on the Hokage Monument, had always considered him dashing and handsome. “If I remind you of him so much, maybe you should teach me something so I can appreciate it like the Fourth Hokage did.”

“Yeah right, Naruto. Forget it. You’re barking up the wrong tree.”

And for a moment, Naruto thinks it’s the end of Jiraiya’s patience with him for the day. Tomorrow he’ll start again and bother him until his throat goes hoarse.

Except he doesn’t need to.

After nightfall once they set up camp, Pervy Sage is rubbing his big belly when he announces, “I’ve had a change of heart, Naruto. If you’re willing, I’ll train you, but be prepared for the hard work that comes with it.”

Pervy Sage barely finishes the last word before Naruto’s whooping loudly in the air, too overjoyed to care.

—

It takes a few weeks, but they eventually find Lady Tsunade after a bad loss at the gambling tables.

Naruto convinces her to return to the village with his Ressengan ability. Not to mention he’s able to summon some old toads after Pervy Sage had pushed him over a cliff’s edge, body flailing towards his death had it not been for the fact the gigantic toad cushioned his fall. 

Much to everyone’s surprise, however, Tsunade decides to remain permanently in Konoha once she learns of Orochimaru’s on the outskirts of the village, and the troubling revelation of the Akatsuki organization. 

Also because maybe she’s tired of roaming without calling anywhere a home, Naruto thinks.

Nobody tells him or Sakura when Sasuke will be released from the hospital, or if he’s okay, or if he’s getting any better. They hear the Chunin exams will be pushed back until Sasuke fully recovers, though why is never revealed. Both he and Sakura huddle around doorways in order to eavesdrop over the nurses conversations, pace within the hospital lobby, until Tsunade bans them from the premises from being too overbearing in her place of work. 

It’s the longest week of Naruto’s life.

—

Returning to Konoha has made Tsunade rethink if it’s honorable or foolish to adhere to bets with thirteen year old brats. 

The village, more or less, has remained the same in her absence. During her first several hours upon arrival, she’s noticed the development of several new apartment buildings, bars, and gambling holes since she’s last been within these walls, much to her obvious pleasure. Shizune had taken it upon herself to look for a place for the two of them to live so Tsunade can unpack within her former office within the hospital and waste no time in treating the specialty patients, Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Sasuke.

Even the hospital is as she remembers it, smelling of septic with its blinding white lights. It unsettles something in her gut, at the reminder she’s willingly stepping foot into the path of witnessing the carnage and blood of battle she had longed to forget. She glances towards the exit. There’s still time to change her mind, to leave Konoha and never come back, forget about her promises to Naruto and continue the way she’s been living. It’s tempting, so tantalizing, but she’s a woman of her word, so she forces herself back towards where her patients lie. 

It only takes several hours for Tsunade to administer the treatments for both Shinobi. There isn’t much to be done in the face of Tsukuyomi, though she’d never admit that aloud to the likes of Naruto. As much as she can heal the physical damage within the optic nerves and the areas of the brain affected by the genjutsu, the psychological damage has already been done, and is far more difficult to heal.

Tsunade is unsettled at the fact one would use such a technique on their own blood, but considering what Itachi had done to the entirety of the Uchiha clan, she can’t say she’s surprised at the lack of regard for his younger brother.

As she waits, Tsunade takes it upon herself to read through Uchiha Sasuke’s medical file. According to the reports, he’s at his peak physical health for a thirteen year old boy. Apparently he’s recently activated his Sharingan on one of his first C-Rank missions, which is impressive. She scans through the facts of him, passes over his current height, weight, muscle mass, metabolism, and grows increasingly frustrated as what she’s looking for isn’t there. There is no mention of the boy’s mental health, and more disturbingly, there is nothing in regards to any form of psych evaluation since the following days of the Uchiha massacre, if the date on the form is correct. 

Tsunade isn’t surprised. Konoha has not changed when it comes to the needs of the nation above a singular person’s psyche. It’s why she left in the first place.

Of course she’s heard of what became of the Uchiha during her travels. Word travels fast when one of the most powerful clans in all of Shinobi history has fallen, especially done by one of their own. There were rumors of a survivor, but Tsunade had been so lost in her grief and debts and booze, she could not picture a real, breathing face to the title.

Now right before her eyes, the last Uchiha lays before her sleeping sound. Tsunade more than anyone understands what a terrible weight it is to be the last to bare a family name.

When Sasuke finally wakes from whatever nightmare he’d been enduring, eyelids slowly rising and falling, taking in his surroundings, Tsunade is right there. There’s the familiar frightened look in one’s eye when prey is caught in unfamiliar territory, and she can see the flash of flee or fight cross Sasuke’s mind.

“Sasuke, you’re in Konoha’s hospital,” she says in the calmest voice she can manage, noting it does nothing to calm the boy. “Itachi is not here. You’re safe. Your friends are safe. He cannot hurt you here.”

“Nobody is safe while Itachi’s still alive,” Sasuke snarls, ripping the blankets off of him. He’s still weak from the drugs and the toll from the Tsukuyomi on his body finally seems to have caught up to him from the way his eyes nearly roll back in his head, slumping against the hospital bed. “Where is he? Where’s Naruto? Did he _kill_him?”

Staring at him, Tsunade is reminded of the nights she woke up screaming with Shizune repeating those familiar words as she stroked her hair. _You’re safe, Tsunade, _she would whisper to a still half-asleep, sobbing Tsunade. _You’re here with me. You were having a nightmare, but you’re safe now. _Sometimes it’d range anywhere from several minutes to hours for those words to sink in, but Shizune had never wavered, not once. Not when Tsunade had begged and screamed for her to leave her to her own madness and grief. Shizune had simply stayed with her during those darkest of nights on her own accord, never asking for anything in return, but for Tsunade to care for her as Shizune did for her.

Tsunade will do the same for this boy here, if no one else before her has done so.

“Listen to me, Naruto is safe. From what I’ve heard, you protected him. He went all this way to where I was and annoyed the shit out of me until I came back to Konoha to make sure you were okay,” Tsunade says. 

Something settles on Sasuke’s face at her words, and she must’ve said something right, because he relaxes if only slightly. It’s not a complete calm, but the relief has loosened the tension in the boy’s muscles. “That… sounds like him.”

“Mhm,” she hums back. “Sounds like to me you two are good friends.”

“We’re teammates,” Sasuke corrects. “Not friends.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

At that, Sasuke narrows his eyes and turns his face away from her indignantly though his cheeks are starting to flush underneath the lighting. It’s the same expression she wore when Jiraiya had found out about her true feelings for Dan and wouldn’t let Tsunade forget it every time he saw her. Huh, if only she were this good at reading people at the poker tables. “Who the hell are you anyway?” Sasuke asks. “I need to get out of here and find Itachi._ Now _.”

“Yeah right, not in the state you’re in, kiddo.” Tsunade has to fight the urge to roll her eyes. “I’m the woman who healed you after your brother pulled a Tsukuyomi on you, but you can just call me Tsunade. From what I’ve read up on you, Sasuke, you seem smarter than to simply go after someone who clearly outmatches you. You can’t go after him like this.”

“You don’t know anything about me.” There’s a ferocity in his eyes that matches the pain hidden there as well. “And if you’re telling me not to go after revenge, forget it. That’s my goal, my purpose. I’m an avenger.”

“Did I say not to go after revenge? All I said was you can’t go after him in this state, unless you _want _to end up dead which is what will happen if you do.”

For a moment, Sasuke doesn’t speak. He’s watching her with a curious expression on his face, as if he can’t quite believe the words she’s speaking are true.

“You’re not going to try and talk me out of it?”

“Why would I?” Tsunade asks. “Itachi murdered your entire clan and tortured you. Revenge is an understandable reaction.”

Sasuke narrows his eyes. “You sound like you speak from experience.”

Death and Tsunade have known each other for so long it’s expectant for her to become as intimate with it as she is with her own shadow. It looms over her, influences every choice and decision she’s come to make in all these years she’s been alive. No surprise someone who has felt its cruel hand would come to recognize it on her.

“Unlike you, I did not have a specific name or person attached to those who took my loved ones from me. War did,” Tsunade answers as detached as a medical professional is able, though her heart’s already clenching at the memory of it. Feeling this sober is surprisingly more difficult than she expected. “I’m the last of the Senju clan.”

First her parents, shortly after her younger brother was born—both killed along the front lines within the last years of the First Great Ninja War. Then her uncle,Tobirama Senju fell only months before the war ended. The Second Great Ninja War stole her brother and fiancé from her then after. All those deaths took and took from her until all was left was the broken woman standing today.

Tsunade takes a seat at one of the bedside chairs in the room, the weight of the memories exhausting her. “Revenge is a familiar concept to me, yes.”

“Did it help?” Sasuke asks, the ever present frown still on his face. “Revenge against the people who took your family away from you.”

“A Shinobi is meant to keep their feelings separate from their duty, but there was too much chaos inside for it to be contained. So, I focused it all on revenge—the grief, the pain, the hatred.” Picking at a loose piece of fabric on the arm chair, gaze growing distant as she recounts the wars she’s lived through, the battles she fought, the blood she shed. “Every life I took, I pictured their face was the one who took my family’s life, and it made me strong. I was good at killing. At revenge. It allowed me to survive despite the open wound I had.”

Sasuke stares at her, unblinking. “Sounds like you’re on the verge of adding a ‘but’ to the end of that.”

“No, not exactly. You shouldn’t interrupt when a woman’s telling you a war story, brat,” Tsunade says, only half as perturbed as she sounds. A drink in her hand would be good right about now. “Anyway, after the end of every war, there is no need for a weapon such as me. Not in the same way as when the war was still ongoing. I had trouble readjusting to Shinobi life—I still do, if I’m being honest. Needed a break, a change of scenery afterwards. Traveled from a variety of villages and towns, trying to find myself again, but all those emotions I channeled into my revenge spilled out everywhere else.”

It spilled into the alcohol during the worst of her binge nights, the incessant gambling, the one night stands she’d leave in the dust before the sun rose. Years and years of her life turning into a blur she can hardly remember, and she still wasn’t much better after her decision to come back to Konoha.

Shizune never left her despite having every reason to. Without her, Tsunade would be dead. 

“I don’t wonder what would have happened if I chose to channel all my pain into something other than revenge. Jiraiya always had plenty of shit to say about my choices, but he doesn’t understand.” Now Tsunade was staring at Sasuke with a serious expression on her face, leaning forward on her elbows. “Nobody understands what you need besides you, Sasuke. Whether you learn that now, or several years from now, only you can decide how you process whatever shit this world throws at you.”

For a long while, Sasuke says nothing, lays completely unmoving as she watches his brain comprehend everything she’s told him. Then there’s a simple nod he gives and the tension leaves his body, apparently satisfied with everything she’s spilled about herself for him. Apparently her winging it was satisfactory enough for the boy.

Unexpectedly, Sasuke cuts the silence and asks her, “What was your favorite place? After the war, when you were traveling.”

“Takigakure,” Tsunade answers without missing a beat. “There’s nothing quite like getting drunk and watching the sunset over a waterfall, kid. It’s something else entirely.”

Together they talk about the places Tsunade has been in her travels, and divulges appropriate-for-this-age-group stories of the most memorable things she did there, who she was, until Sasuke falls asleep late into the night. 

It’s a surprise to her how much she’s come to like this particular brat.

—

“I could’ve sworn I’ve had more money in here,” Naruto says with a nervous chuckle, searching frantically in his now empty frog wallet. If Pervy Sage stole money from him _again _, he was seriously going to kick his ass. “Missions have kinda come to a slow since the Chunin Exams are tomorrow, y’know?”

Across the bar of Ichiraku’s Ramen, Teuchi stares at him, unamused. There’s three empty bowls of ramen in front of Naruto, all but laughing at him as he struggles to make money form out of thin air.

“You won’t be able to eat here again until you pay this off, Naruto,” Teuchi says. “Last time I let your tab go because you didn’t have money, I was losing profits. Big time.”

“I know, I know!” Now he’s patting the pockets of his jumpsuit, hoping he’s not as exasperated looking as he feels. “I’m trying! Just give me a second.”

“Here,” a deep voice says, and when Naruto glances up, there’s the familiar arm extended with some coins in his hands. Sasuke appears almost bored as Teuchi takes his money. “This should cover the rest of his meal.”

“Thank you, Uchiha Sasuke.”

Naruto’s about to turn around and give him some lip when he realizes Sasuke’s already walking away from him, back turned. He thanks Teuchi and chases after him, a little slowly thanks to the ramen swirling around in his belly. 

“Oi, teme, what the hell was that for?” Naruto asks, a little breathless when he’s finally caught up with him. “I didn’t need you swooping in and trying to show off all your money like that. It was being handled.”

“I would’ve loved to see you handle that with your broke ass,” Sasuke replies. Though his face is mostly facing away from Naruto, he can see the small curve of a smile on Sasuke’s lips. “Didn’t you just get money from the last mission? You spend it all on ramen already?” 

“No!” Naruto retorts. “I had money, but Pervy Sage must’ve took it again.”

“Pervy Sage?” Sasuke raises a brow, frowning. The nickname sounds funny when Sasuke says it for some reason. “Again? He’s done this to you before?”

“Yeah, Jiraiya-Sensei. When we were looking for Granny Tsunade to help heal you after, uh, y’know… He told me he was going to hold onto it for me, but he spent it on booze and girls.” Naruto scrunches his face up, his nose wrinkling at the memory, before he lets out a snort. “After he told me that those were against the principles of Shinobi. Big ol’ hypocrite, right?”

Sasuke remains humorless, as always. “Is he going to pay you back?” 

“Uh, I don’t know.” Naruto’s hands rub at the back of his neck, awkward at the sudden attention Sasuke’s giving him. “Pervy Sage told me he paid me back in training me, but he only taught me two things and told me I kinda had to figure it out myself. After he told me he’d train if I gave him inspiration too. Huh, maybe I should ask for it back…”

“You should,” he agrees. “This Jiraiya sounds like an asshole.”

“Ha! You’re jealous one of the legendary sannin’s training me, aren’t you?”

“Not really,” Sasuke replies. “Not if he’s using you for your money and ‘inspiration’. Whatever the hell that means.”

“Psh, you’re totally jealous.” Naruto sticks his tongue out at him, and when Sasuke rolls his eyes, somewhere caught between annoyance and amusement, Naruto settles. “Uh, I can’t pay you back right now, but I’m going to make it even. Don’t worry about that.”

“I’m not worried, and you don’t have to pay me back.”

“What?! Of course I do! I’m not some pity case you can throw money at, y’know.”

Sasuke pauses in his steps, glancing Naruto over with a curious expression on his face. Something about the way Sasuke’s looking at him makes his cheeks warm up. “You don’t know how to say thank you like a normal person, do you?”

“Yeah, to people who aren’t you.” Though if Naruto were being honest, he can’t remember the last time he’s said aloud those two words. He’d certainly felt thankful when Teuchi had placed the food in front of his face. “Saying thank you to you feels like… Weird, I dunno. I don’t like the fact we’re not even anymore.”

Sasuke frowns then, glancing over at him as they walk through the streets of Konoha languidly. “You’re seriously clueless, aren’t you?”

“Shut up.” Naruto bumps his shoulder against Sasuke’s, who only rolls his eyes with a little huff of his breath. There’s no tinge of annoyance there, but even if there was, it wouldn’t have fazed him. “Come on, you’re my rival. You’re telling me you don’t keep score of who’s saved who more?”

“First of all, I never agreed to being your rival. You just showed up in my face one day calling me an arrogant asshole and I let you.” Which, well, is true. Doesn’t mean Sasuke has to be so factual about it. “I don’t keep score with stuff like that because I’m not a moron. However…”

Naruto raises a brow, unable to hide the eager expression on his face. When Sasuke still doesn’t respond, he huffs. “Now you’re just doing this on purpose.”

A small smirk forms on Sasuke’s lips. “However, I’m aware of what we do for each other as much as you are, Naruto.” Something about the way Sasuke says his name leaves him feeling warm all over. He’s not sure if he likes that. “We’re teammates. It’s only natural for us to be… conscious of each other and what we do.”

For some reason, Naruto remains unconvinced. 

“I don’t get you, you know.” Naruto doesn’t miss the way Sasuke’s looking at him, curiosity lingering in his face.Twice now you’ve put your life on the line for me and then we never mention it again, and it’s like, okay, cool. But also not at the same time.” A brief pause. “You get what I mean?”

“No,” Sasuke replies, bluntly. “Why should we mention it?”

“Dunno,” he says, kicking a pebble away from his way of walking. “You’re the only other person who’s done something like that for me besides Iruka-Sensei. It’s weird, I feel like I have this scoreboard over my head telling me how shitty I am at being a friend or a teammate. Like, I’ve got to make it up to you for being such a burden somehow. Save you next.”

Sasuke stops walking then and so does Naruto soon after. It’s only now does Naruto realize Sasuke has an inch or two on him in height, because of course he has to realize this now while he’s making an ass out of himself in front of Sasuke.

“The only reason why I’ve managed to save you as many times as I did is because you make yourself an easy target,” he explains with a lilt in his voice, eyes shining with mirth underneath the street lamp. It takes Naruto a moment to realize Sasuke’s teasing him. “Given the chance, I’m sure you could make it up to me. Maybe.”

“Do you ever take a break from being an asshole?”

With a raise of a brow, Sasuke counters, “Do you ever stop being so annoying?”

“Touché.”

Sasuke shakes his head in amusement as he stuffs his hands into the pockets of his pants. “If it makes you feel better, you’ve basically walked me back to my apartment, so you’re on the right track of making it up to me.”

“Just you wait, Sasuke,” Naruto says with a determination in his voice that surprises even himself. “Next mission I’m saving your ass and then I’m going to kick it. For good measure because you deserve it.”

“You’ll still be one behind, dead last,” Sasuke replies, then turns towards the door of his building. “Goodnight, dork.”

Naruto only replies in a scoff as he watches Sasuke disappear into the building, and when there’s no sign of the Uchiha any longer, he turns around and makes his way back to his apartment on the other side of town.

If he’s smiling the entire way home, nobody mentions it.

—

It’s three in the morning when Jiraiya’s stumbling back to the inn he's been staying in since he's first arrived in Konoha, two women of the night under each arm for research purposes of his next novel. Good thing the two beautiful women are there, too, or he would have most certainly have stumbled into the lamp post at least twice already. Stupid alcohol brain.

Except as he approaches the door to his room is blocked by some weirdo kid with a scowl on his face.

“You Jiraiya?”

“Who’s asking?” Jiraiya asks, words slurring. Maybe he hit too hard on the sake tonight. “You’re also in my way, kid, so move.”

“Uchiha Sasuke.” The kid stands a little straighter, arms crossed over his chest. “I’m assuming you’re paying for this with Naruto’s money you stole from him.”

“Hey, I didn’t _steal _it. I borrowed it. Uzumaki Naruto is my pupil, if you must know. It’s a common practice, a way to bond between mentor and mentee.”

“Cut the bullshit, you drunken slob. I’m giving you three days to pay him back, and if I don’t see his stupid frog wallet filled to the brim with all the money you stole and_more _, I’m going to take it from you.”

“Are you threatening me? One of the Leaf’s Legendary Sannin?” Jiraiya barks out a laugh. “You’re a pipsqueak. I can destroy you with my pinky.” 

When he wiggles his pinky in the Uchiha’s boys face, the boy slaps it away with enough force that actually kinda hurts. A little. 

Then the boy flashes his Sharingan at him, and the bubble of laughter in his chest dies.

“Also, don’t use him for inspiration anymore. Whatever that means.” Sasuke glowers at the two women hanging from his side, before he pushes himself off the door to Jiraiya’s room and starts walking in the opposite direction. “Clean up your act while you’re at it. Naruto deserves a better mentor than you.”

A couple of seconds later, and the Uchiha disappears into the darkness.

“Did the kid say you were using your student for ‘_ inspiration _’? I thought that’s what _we _were for.” One of the women asks, disgust written all over her features as she tears herself away from Jiraiya’s side. “You really are a disgusting pervert.”

“We’re keeping the money,” the other says. “For our traveling fee.”

As Jiraiya watches the two women walk away, leaving him cold and empty and disappointed, he narrows his eyes at the empty space where the Uchiha kid had been only seconds earlier.

Naruto needs better friends.

—

During the next morning, Naruto finds an unmarked envelope filled to the brim with money. It’s probably the luckiest day of his life. 

—

The Chunin Exams this year start off interesting and doesn’t relent.

Danzō of all people is more than aware of how dangerous the exams can be. Every year potential Shinobi are lost to the harshness and extreme difficulty of the each part of the exam. This year, however, there’s an apparent surprise guest from Konoha’s past that makes this year’s exam all the more profitable. 

Members of Root report sightings of Orochimaru just as the first part of the exam begins. A few days later, the Kazekage’s body is found, and Uchiha Sasuke has a new curse mark on the side of his neck. 

As dangerous as the situation is for Konoha, there’s opportunity rife in the air. They don’t make an official report to the Hokage until a few days later.

First, he has a meeting with the Kazekage to uphold.

“I’m a very busy man, Lord Danzō,” he says, fitting the part. It’s impressive how he’s managed to copy the kage’s mannerisms with such precision. “Hopefully this meeting will be swift and painless.”

“Let’s not play games, Orochimaru,” Danzō replies, because he’s a busy man as well and these events are reaching towards a final point and time is an essence in ensuring his plans. “Tell me why you’ve returned to the village.”

Orochimaru smiles slow, carefully revealing his sharp teeth.

“To destroy it, of course.” There’s no hesitation in his words. This plan of his has been on his mind for years. “And for a more personal reason. See, I’m in search of someone who’s just been out of grasp.”

The dark curse mark on Uchiha’s Sasuke’s skin flashes in his mind.

“I won’t let you destroy the village,” Danzō says, firm in his conviction. He loves Konoha too much to let it fall to ruin. “However, I believe we can reach a conclusion with discussion we both can be happy with.”

“And what might that be?”

“We both want Sarutobi dead,” Danzō explains, eyeing the other in search of malice, but Orochimaru’s listening intently, the offer already tantalizing to his ears. “And for our own reasons, we have the same desire for the Uchiha to be out of the village. You can have both of these things without the rest of Konoha’s destruction.”

Sacrifice is necessary in order to maintain peace within the village. The Will of Fire deems it so.

Orochimaru licks his lips with an impossibly long tongue, and Danzō realizes all his years of waiting and planning have finally fallen into place.

—

Haruno Sakura has come to the humiliating realization she is an unremarkable ninja. 

Although she’s starting to suspect from how quickly she accepts this facet about herself, Sakura may have always known somewhat, buried deep underneath her tough bravado and booksmarts she was average, not just as a ninja but as a girl. It had been easy to distract herself with her newfound popularity, her seemingly-going-nowhere crush on Sasuke, and how she’s surpassed her fellow classmates academically all the way until now. Failing the second round of the Chunin Exams has granted her a clarity on how academics can only get oneself so far. 

To be honest, the Chunin Exams had made a lot of aspects about herself clear in a way that makes Sakura’s throat go tight and left her with a discomfort being in her own skin. 

First, being the fact that she’s grown more than aware of the fact she’s little more than a weight on Team Seven. During training under Kakashi-Sensei, she had grown comfortable with the fact she knew her stuff, excelling in chakra control where the boys had lagged behind, and grew comfortable in the face of her own progress. For some reason, she had naively believed in the fact she would continue to remain ahead, with the boys a few steps behind chasing after her like she’d always wanted. Except not only did Naruto and Sasuke continue to train and eventually meet Sakura at her level, she had remained stagnant, content with her abilities, and at some point they’ve moved several feet ahead of her without her realizing.

Before the formation of Team Seven, she remembers herself being far more ambitious than she was now. Her friendship with Ino had pushed Sakura out of her comfort zone, and part of her had wanted to become as pretty, smart and quick-witted, and popular than her. When Sasuke had entered the picture, she continued wanting more. But as soon as they were forged into the same team together by fate, Sakura’s goals meshed from making herself someone worthy in general to making herself worthy in Sasuke’s eyes. That was the first step of many in the relatively short road to her current status.

Many people believe complacency and becoming stagnant is something that’s passive, but it’s an active choice. One has to choose over and over again to pass on opportunities for growth and that’s precisely what she allowed to happen. 

A second realization is that she forgot how much she’s liked herself with short hair. It frames her face in a way that makes her look powerful and seen, and lifts a weight from her neck she didn’t realize was an issue. When her Leaf Shinobi headband pulls her bangs away, Sakura feels official and more mature than she ever did with her longer hair.

The third realization Sakura learns, and probably the most uncomfortable of all, is how callous she’s become. When Ino and the rest of Team Ten had stepped in to rescue Team Seven, she didn’t hesitate despite the fact Sakura had ditched her and had long stopped being her best friend so long ago. It occurred to her then that if their situations were reversed, she knew she would not do the same, prepared to ensure the victory of her team at any cost.

Kakashi’s words had haunted her ever since their encounter: _Those who abandon their friends are worse than scum _.

He was right.

Truth be told, Sakura hates the person she’s allowed herself to morph into, only a mere shadow of what she once was. A weak and scared little girl, relying on everyone else to protect her, to save her, and expecting it without a shred of gratitude. How long has she been like this? Why did nobody tell her this is who she was now? 

All of it’s going to change now, however. No longer will she allow herself to be content with others picking up her weight. Sakura will make herself someone worthy to call their ally, their teammate, their friend—before it’s too late.

When she knocks on the door to Lady Tsunade’s office, she doesn’t wait for the older woman to invite her in. She forces his way through, a determination in her gaze.

“I want you to be my Sensei,” Sakura requests, no tremble or hesitation in her voice. “Teach me what you know so I can be as strong as you are—no, _stronger _actually. So I can give back what everyone’s done for me ten-fold.”

Lady Tsunade hums thoughtfully over a cup of hot tea and mountains of Konoha hospital’s paperwork piling on her desk. A horrid thought pops into Sakura’s mind, that maybe Tsunade is far too busy to take on a pupil like her. Finally, after what feels like minutes, she answers, “I like the look in your eye, Sakura. Don’t think this training will require anything less than all your effort and hard work, if you choose to continue.”

“I’m willing to do whatever it takes to become strong.”

“Very well,” Lady Tsunade says with a smile. “Meet me at the training grounds before dawn, and bring weights, too. All you can carry.”

Sakura smiles something hungry.

—

“Oi, Naruto, I bought you those extra beef cutlets to celebrate and you’re letting it all go cold,” Iruka says, nudging the moping boy with an elbow, who’s staring at something beyond his ramen. “What’s going on with you? I thought you’d be happy for getting to the third phase of the Chunin Exams.”

Naruto perks his head up, taking a massive bite of his ramen despite the fact it looks far too forced. “I am happy!” A little bit of the broth spills from his mouth, dripping onto his pants, and Iruka’s far too concerned with his state of mind to bother to nag him about not talking with his mouth full. After he swallows, he wipes his chin with the sleeve of his jumpsuit. “I am, I really am. This is everything I’ve ever wanted since before I met you at the Academy. It’s just…”

The only other times Iruka has seen Naruto this avoidant of food or without the usual perk in his step or spark in his eye has been the times Iruka has failed him from the Academy. It’s a rare enough occurrence for Iruka to not be constantly worried, but despite that, it only makes him grow more concerned when this sort of thing happens. 

Iruka has made it his mission to make sure Naruto can lead the most normal and happy life he could possibly have. Maybe he’s grown too busy at the Academy and Naruto’s beginning to feel more neglected. He could take the day off tomorrow, offer to spar with Naruto like they used to before…

“I just can’t stop thinking about the other contestants,” Naruto blurts out, and his brows are furrowed and his mouth is downturned into a deep frown. “Especially Neji and Gaara.”

Ah, so that’s the problem, huh? Naruto’s nervous, and Iruka doesn’t blame him considering how difficult this year’s competition is supposed to be, given that he’s trained most of them himself.

“Hey, if you train really hard within the next month, I’m sure you’ll be able to take them no problem.” Iruka smiles reassuringly, patting Naruto on the back. “You’re going to do great.”

“Of course I’m going to do great! I’m going to train really hard and beat everyone so I can get my fight with Sasuke and become Hokage, but that’s not the problem, Iruka-Sensei!” The sudden shouts from Naruto catches the near-by villagers attention and whispers, and Iruka simply turns his reassuring hand on his shoulder into a more protective shield, glaring at anyone who doesn’t understand the concept of minding their own business. Naruto, thankfully, doesn’t notice, or at least chooses not to. “Did you know about the Hyuga clan? The main family and the branch family?”

Iruka tenses for a moment at the question, before relenting when something like guilt pools at the bottom of his stomach like an uncomfortable weight. If this is what Naruto’s been thinking about, he can understand his lack of appetite. 

Naruto clenches his chopsticks in his hand and grunts his teeth, and it’s a wonder the pieces of wood haven’t snapped in his grip already. “Neji was talking about it during his fight with Hinata and I don’t understand how someone can do that to their own family! Just because he and Hinata’s family doesn’t get along, doesn’t mean they should too, right Iruka-Sensei?”

Something like disappointment bubbles in Iruka’s chest, but he squashes it down as soon as it came. He can’t blame Naruto’s ignorance on anything other than the inexperience and naivety of youth.

The problems within the Hyuga clan has been a long-standing issue within Konoha for as long as Iruka can remember. It’s a certain taboo to discuss the intraclan issues so openly when one is not apart of said clan, but he has always found it abhorrent what the main family continues to do to the branch family, to their own flesh and blood. When he had caught a glimpse of the Curse Mark ingrained on Hyuga Neji’s forehead during a sparring session with one of his classmates from the year before, Iruka had to excuse himself from the overflowing rage within him.

He had on multiple occasions attempted to connect with Neji to no avail. The boy had closed himself off to the world, anger and hatred brimming within his heart, and Iruka honestly couldn’t blame him. 

Sometimes if he closes his eyes, he can see the same hatred and discontent in Neji burn within Uchiha Sasuke. Two students he couldn’t reach out to, as far as he knew. How many more will slip through his fingers? How many already have?

“Iruka-Sensei!” Naruto’s waving a hand in his face, and Iruka blinks at the suddenness of it. “Are you even paying attention to anything I’m saying?”

“Naruto. Listen to me, okay?” When Naruto settles, eyes wide and all focus on him, he nods and Iruka continues. “I’m not saying what Neji did to Hinata was right, or justified. There is a lot of betrayal and pain in that boy’s heart, and he was taking it out on the only person available to him because he can’t confront the true source.”

For a while, Naruto remains speechless, the gears in his head visible in his eyes as he processes the information. Iruka continues, “Children act out usually because they’re hurting or are in pain, and they don’t need to get their asses kicked. Sometimes all they need is someone to understand what they’re going through and listen, or offer a helping hand.”

“Really?” Naruto asks, though there’s an understanding in his eyes as his right hand lays over his heart. “Even to weirdo creeps like Gaara?”

“Yes, even then,” Iruka answers, but quickly adds, “But remain careful and on your guard at all times, especially around him. I don’t want you getting hurt because of you getting in the way. Do you understand me?”

“Ah! You’re saying way too many different things at the same time and it’s making my head hurt!”

“You’re a good kid, Naruto,” he says. “You’ll know the right thing to do when the time comes. Do you feel better, at least? Letting this all go off your chest?”

Iruka’s expecting the normal goofy smile to accompany Naruto’s features again, for everything to go back to normal, but it doesn’t come.

“No… There’s something else, too.”

“What is it?”

“I’m really worried about Sasuke too,” Naruto says with a sigh, frowning at the contents of his uneaten ramen. “There’s something really wrong with him and nobody’s really telling me anything.”

As Naruto relays what occurred during the second phase of the Chunin Exams, Iruka realizes he’s lost his appetite as well.

—

Uchiha Sasuke is starting to become a regular in her office, much to Tsunade’s disapproval. 

“I didn’t expect to see you back in the hospital so soon, Sasuke,” Tsunade says, looking the boy over in his bed. He looks so small, bristling with the red-hot anger she’s come to understand. “Perhaps I should make this your personal suite, considering how often you end up here.”

“Not like I enjoy these uncomfortable beds,” he says, sounding exhausted and irritable. “Trouble seems to find me, Lady Tsunade.”

At his words, her gaze flickers towards the three tomoe on the skin of Sasuke’s neck. The Cursed Seal of Heaven. It’s a miracle the boy is still alive.

A flood of hatred fills her veins, makes the board in her clasped hands shake so violently she nearly snaps it in half. If only she knew of Orochimaru’s presence ahead of time, she could have prevented this from happening all over again. Tsunade takes a deep breath, desperate to calm herself, for it’d do neither her nor Sasuke any good if she lets her emotions take over.

“I only know of one other person with the Curse Mark, so there isn’t much for me to go on unfortunately,” she informs him. No use beating around the bush about it. “What I do know is this mark has a low survival rate—Anko, along with nine other ninja, were given the mark by Orochimaru. Only Anko survived out of the ten, and now, you too.”

Sasuke narrows his eyes, bringing his fingers to brush along where the three tomoe lay. He says nothing. 

“From Anko’s file, there’s little other information for me to go on, considering the seal had receded on its own due to a lack of usage,” Tsunade continues. “Lord Third managed to seal it off again, and from what I can tell, Kakashi-Sensei has managed to use an effective seal of his own on yours for the time being.”

“Exactly, so I’m fixed,” Sasuke responds. “Why the hell am I here then?”

“All your sensei did was put a bandaid on a gaping wound.” Tsunade grabs her pen, licks the point of it, and scribbles on the sheet of paper attached to her clipboard to make sure it works. “I’m intending on removing it.”

“You can’t.”

“Not without proper knowledge beforehand,” Tsunade retorts. “That is why you are here. You’re the only one who’s effectively used and felt the effects of the Curse Mark. Given enough time, I may be able to properly figure out how to remove it. For good.”

For a long while, Sasuke says nothing. Closes his eyes and sinks further into the hospital bed, looking warn and drawn out—far too old for a thirteen year old to look. If Tsunade gets her hands on Orochimaru, she will tear out his throat with her bare hands.

“What if…” Sasuke starts, hesitant, but pushes on. “This Curse Mark is giving me the strength I need.”

Tsunade looks over at him from above her clipboard, taking in the way his gaze won’t look at her, ashamed. It’s a thought he’s been marinating in his mind, apparently for a while. She sets down the clipboard on one of the bedside tables, inches her chair closer so she can force herself to be in Sasuke’s vision.

“Answer me honestly, Uchiha. Is this the strength you want in order to defeat your brother?”

“Yes,” he answers without hesitation, but there’s doubt in his gaze that reveals him to her far too easy. “No. I don’t know.” Sasuke heaves a heavy sigh and Tsunade recognizes the sound of someone who’s trying to breathe when they feel as if they’re drowning. “When the Curse Mark overtakes me, I don’t… feel like myself. I feel like _ him _and I hate myself, but it’s the only way I’m getting stronger… It’s the only way I’ve managed to fend off the Sound Ninja during the second phase of the Chunin Exams. What if this is my only chance?”

There’s a desperation and anger and pain in Sasuke’s voice that cuts straight to Tsunade’s heart. 

“It won’t be,” she reassures. “This Curse Mark is only going to hinder you, in the end. You know this. That’s why you haven’t left yet.”

Sasuke has his head turned completely away from her, hands shaking with his fingers bunched in the bed sheets. What a strong, stubborn kid. Tsunade will allow him this moment of privacy to himself.

“Give me time,” Tsunade says, “That’s all I’m asking. Your brother will still be out there, and I will make you strong without this Curse Mark eating away at you.”

When Sasuke nods in silence, Tsunade reaches out to wipe away the single tear falling down his cheek. 

A promise to herself she intends to keep is made then: _I will not lose this child _.

—

At the arena, Orochimaru begins his assault against Konoha, and everything goes to hell soon after.

—

Gaara never once expected to find himself bedridden in a hospital cot, let alone one that did reside in Sunagakure. He hates just about everything in relation towards them. The blinding fluorescent lighting, the stench of bleach and cleaning supplies masking the blood, the constant supervision of the pathetic Medic Nin who cower away from just the minimal of eye contact. 

The sound of Kankuro snoring from the right of him catches his attention. When he turns his head, Kankuro is sprawled out on one of the chairs, Temari sat in the other repairing her fans, brought in by Konohagakure ninja as a gesture in order for his siblings to keep him company as he recovers. All three of them knew it was nothing more than a jail cell as they determine the extent of their involvement with Orochimaru and the murder of Konoha’s Hokage. Neither of them care to point it out. They had already accepted defeat. 

Out of everyone in this room, Gaara knows there are worse prisons than these. At least they are together, no matter the verdict Konoha will declare for their treason. 

Clicks of the locks catch both his and Temari’s attention, and they watch silently as the knob turns and the door pushes open. Familiar bright blue eyes and blonde hair capture his attention, making him nearly miss the multiple Anbu guards outside before the door shuts again. Naruto with bandages covering him from head to toe stands there, leaning against one of the hospital’s crutches. Already in just a few short days of recovery is he already able to move on his own while Gaara lies here, helpless. The power of the Nine-Tails continues to surprise him. 

“I just wanted to be the one to tell you guys Konoha’s got no hard feelings for what happened,” Naruto announces, as blase as ever. As if this is a normal conversation to be had between two jinchūriki who nearly destroyed one another only days before. “That’s what Pervy Sage told me earlier anyway. You’ve got no idea how much I had to bug him to convince the Anbu to let me be the one to tell you.”

Temari continues to eye Naruto with an incredulous look on her features, as if she cannot comprehend he is there in the flesh with no apparent resentment in his body or his words. Gaara wouldn’t have believed it either, if he had not seen Naruto’s true spirit laid before him. 

“Why are you here, Naruto?” Gaara asks the burning question. “There is no reason for you being here.”

“Did I mess up your hearing back there? I already told you why I’m here.” Naruto huffs in annoyance, situating the crutch he’s leaning on to sit more comfortably underneath his armpit. “I thought you guys would be a little less emo-looking about the fact you’ll get to go back to Suna.”

“These are just our faces,” Temari responds, looking over her nails instead of directly at Naruto. “We’re elated to return to the utter chaos our village will erupt into when they realize we’ve returned without their Kazekage.”

_Without father _, Gaara amends internally, and can’t help the little smirk that crosses his face at the realization he will never have to come face to face with the man ever again, _How pitiful _.

Naruto narrows his eyes, but says nothing in response to her. Instead he focuses his full attention on Gaara, and all he can do is stare back at the intensity burning within those eyes that were the first to see Gaara, truly, for what he was. It’s almost overwhelming being the center of Naruto’s focus, but he does not back away from it. There is no reason to.

“I guess I wanted to know what you were going to do after you leave Konoha,” Naruto admits, finally. Though Temari continues to listen in on the conversation, Naruto remains unbothered. “You know, when you return to Suna. What your life will be like now after everything that’s happened here.”

Gaara studies him for a moment before giving a shrug. “I have no idea.”

Truthfully he’s not so much as entertained the thought of what life will be like now when he returns to Suna. For most of his life, his purpose has been for the blood and gore of the kill, the hatred and death in his eyes, the contempt for the world he held close in his heart like the shield of armor his sand provides. The idea of living without those key aspects of him leaves Gaara feeling unsteady in a way he has not felt since he was a mere child, a feeling he had longed to forget under the addiction of hatred and pain he’d accumulated. 

Who is he without all of that? Apparently Gaara was about to learn. 

“You must have a follow-up reason as to why you’re asking me about my future plans, Naruto,” Gaara says. “Explain yourself.”

For the first time since Gaara’s laid eyes on him, Naruto’s body stutters in place, free hand reaching to scratch behind his neck. “It’s like I said back there during our fight, Gaara. You’re like me. I didn’t even know there could ever be someone who knows what it’s like to have… a tailed beast sealed away in you. To live the life we lived.” 

Gaara closes his eyes for a moment at the mention of their ordeal. How all this time there was another like him someplace else in the world, who may not have lived life through his skin, through his eyes, but could recognize himself within the other. 

How long the thought of how different the life Gaara could’ve led had he met Naruto sooner will haunt him for remains to be seen.

“Listen, you’re the only jinchūriki I even know of besides me. Before meeting you I didn’t even know there were others like me,” Naruto says, straight and to the point, cuts to the heart of it without hesitation. “We shouldn’t just… let that go because we’re from different villages.”

The realization of what Naruto is saying hits him more than he expects it to.

“You want to keep in contact.”

“Er, yeah,” he says, returning to the nervous tick of scratching at his neck. “Just so I know you won’t go all One Tails mode again or whatever. Keep you in line, ya know.”

From the corner of the room, Temari lets out an amused _hmph _. Gaara had briefly forgotten she was still here in the room, and frankly, had forgotten about his brother as well until he returned to his snoring with a vengeance.

“Alright,” Gaara replies after a moment. “That sounds... reasonable.”

“Cool.” For a moment, Naruto simply stands there, chuckling to himself over something Gaara can’t comprehend. “I’ll let you guys get back to it or whatever. I’ve got a rice pudding cup with my name on it back in my room. See ya.”

Naruto exits the room as casually as he came, and once he’s finally gone, he leaves behind a warmth that blooms in the center of Gaara’s chest. What a strange boy.

“_ That sounds… reasonable _,” Temari mocks from the corner, and Gaara snaps his gaze to find a teasing smirk on her lips, eyeing him with a glint in her eyes. “My ears could be deceiving me, but back there you sounded almost smitten.”

“Shut.” And Gaara purposefully drags out the last word. “Up.”

Only a few days ago, Gaara would have threatened his sister’s life for daring to speak to him as such a nuisance. All this time he could’ve had this easiness with her, had he given humanity one last chance.

Uzumaki Naruto is a person who can bring change for the better.

—

_Naruto, I want to fight you too._

Sasuke’s words felt like they were uttered a lifetime ago. Everything during the final challenge of the Chunin Exams had happened so fast. One day Naruto’s training with the Pervy Sage, next he’s battling Neji one on one, eagerly awaiting for his fight with Sasuke once Sasuke finishes Gaara off, but the fight never comes because the arena turns into a warzone. 

As much as the Chunin Exams is supposed to test one’s abilities as ninja, Naruto learns more during the exams than he ever had during his time at the Academy. Mostly about himself and his classmates. All this time he thought he knew all there was needed to know about them, but he was so wrong. He learns of the trouble between the main family and the branch family of the Hyuga clans and how Neji is desperately trying to break free from his chains. How Lee is honorable in the face of defeat. Finally understands there’s a rivalry between Sakura and Ino he can’t begin to understand. Learns he was not alone in his role as a Jinchūriki and Gaara understood his plight. The most important fact he learns from the Chunin Exams isn’t known until days later.

During some point in his fight with Gaara, the Third Hokage is killed by Orochimaru. 

The damage to Konoha is minimal, considering how badly it could’ve gone. Reconstruction efforts are on high alert, because nobody needs to know Konoha’s in a weakened state following Orochimaru’s attack. People are dissatisfied knowing the Hidden Sand Village is pardoned for their participation in the attack, despite the fact they were manipulated and had their kage murdered by him as well. There’s a dull sense of panic in the air following the attack that unsettles something in Naruto’s stomach, as if a great change was approaching. It’s the same feeling he’s had since team seven’s altercation with Itachi all those weeks ago.

Truthfully, something had shifted during their mission at Shinjuku. Naruto had noticed it first in Sasuke the days following his recovery, but he’d figured if he’d ignore it things would return to normal. Now he was left wondering if anything regarding Konoha would ever be the same again.

After they awoke in the hospital beds and Sasuke had challenged him to a duel, Naruto had been excited. Finally they were able to have the fight between them as equals that for some reason or another always got pushed back. 

Except that wasn’t the kind of fight he wanted. 

Vaguely, he remembers Sakura screaming at them to stop before their fight got out of hand. He remembers the vividness of the chakra as the Rassengan formed in his palm, the heat of Sasuke’s Chidori aimed right at him. If it weren’t for Kakashi-Sensei, there’d be no telling the amount of damage they would have inflicted on each other. 

Guilt pools in the pit of his gut. Naruto _should _have paid more attention to Sasuke before egging him on. The envious glare in Sasuke’s dark eyes right before Kakashi-Sensei grabbed his wrist flashes every time Naruto closes his eyes. 

They _have _to talk. Fix this awkwardness that’s created this wall between them that wasn’t always there. Naruto can at least admit to himself he missed how it used to be between them before everything got so messed up. All he has to do is find Sasuke, apologize to each other, and fix this, and everything will go back to normal. Though trying to find Sasuke when he’s purposefully isolated himself is going to be tricky. He could ask Kakashi-Sensei or Sakura, but he has no idea where those two are at either. Naruto turns towards the direction of Sasuke’s apartment building where he stays, on the other side of town from the Uchiha compound. If anything, Naruto can simply wait for the bastard until he’s cooled down and heads home.

It doesn’t take him long to reach Sasuke’s building, hopping from rooftop to rooftop as if his life depended on it. Naruto combs through each stairwell, knocking on doors and demanding to know which room Sasuke is in. Most of his neighbors never even knew the Uchiha was in this building or simply told him to piss off, until an elderly woman asked Naruto if he was referring to the boy with the dark hair who brought her fresh tomatoes from his balcony garden. With her directions, he climbs near the top floor, and pounds on what he hopes to be the right door.

“Sasuke, let me in!” Naruto yells loud enough for the entire block to hear him, but he doesn’t care. He won’t stop yelling for him until he comes out. “I know this is your apartment! The old lady down there told me so! Open your stupid door!”

From behind the door, Naruto can hear footsteps approaching, and something in his chest tightens before he hears the unmistakable sound of a lock clicking. 

“Did you just lock the door on me, bastard!? What the fuck!? Open the door!”

“Go away, Naruto,” Sasuke replies, voice muffled. “I’m not in the mood to discuss anything with you.”

“You’re talking to me right now, bastard!” Annoyance builds through him, raging in his chest. All pretenses of apologizing fly off the handle, but Naruto can’t allow this gaping hole between them to continue, so he takes a deep breath and refocuses. “Look, about the stupid fight—”

“Enough.” Sasuke sounds so tired. “You won.”

The words don’t make any sense to Naruto’s brain. For the briefest of moments, he wonders if he’s misheard the defeat in Sasuke’s voice, the way the usual fire has been smothered. It leaves him silent for a couple minutes, and if it weren’t for the shadows underneath the crack of the door peering through, Naruto would’ve guessed Sasuke had simply walked away from him.

“What?” 

“Do you need me to repeat myself?” Despite the door blocking them, Naruto can hear the venom in Sasuke’s tone, how biting it is even from this blocked view. After a moment, his voice returns back to the dead, defeated droll from earlier, and Naruto can’t decide which Sasuke he misses more. “You’re finally stronger than me, Usuratonkachi. Congratulations.”

No, this isn’t how it’s supposed to go between them. They’re supposed to give each other their usual banter and return back to normal—how it was before Itachi and Orochimaru. Sure, Naruto expected some lingering awkwardness like how it’d been after the Land of Waves, but he didn’t expect for Sasuke to simply _give _up.

“What the hell is the matter with you?!” Naruto shouts, anger bubbling towards the surface as he pounds on the door with his fists. “This isn’t Sasuke! The Sasuke I know wouldn’t give up like it’s nothing! I thought you were done being a coward!”

Before Naruto’s fists can collide with the wood yet again, the door opens and Sasuke is staring at him with dull, gray eyes. His fist hangs in the air, and the anger dissipates from Naruto at the mere sight of him. There’s a blankness in his stare that has Naruto going still. 

“I’m not being a coward, Naruto. I’m being reasonable,” Sasuke says with a sigh, as if he’s bored. “I’ve outgrown this petty rivalry I’ve allowed to build between us because I have more important things in my life to worry about. It’s about time you grow up too.”

Naruto bristles at the words. “Where the hell is this even coming from?”

“Lady Tsunade is finding a way to remove the Curse Mark, so in the meantime I need to train for when I’m finally free from it. I can’t rely on it for when I come face to face with Itachi.” From the way Sasuke utters those words, it’s as if there’s a joke there only Sasuke knows about. “You’re constantly distracting me, so it’s time to move on. We’re not children anymore, Naruto. I would’ve thought our altercation with the Akatsuki and Orochimaru would’ve proved that much to you.”

“So… So what does this mean?” Naruto hates the way his voice wavers at the question, how this feels like abandonment in the worst possible way. “Does this mean you’re not… We’re not...?”

The corner of Sasuke’s mouth twitches upwards. Compared to the real thing, it’s a mockery. “You’re an idiot,” he cuts off Naruto’s babbling. “We’re teammates, Naruto. That doesn’t change.”

“Sasuke…”

“Now if you’ll leave me alone,” Sasuke says, shooing Naruto away with his hand. “I’m supposed to be resting.”

Sasuke doesn’t wait for Naruto’s response before he goes back inside his apartment and shuts the door in Naruto’s face. There’s no harshness behind the action, no anger, no sadness, nothing. Despite Sasuke’s words, Naruto can’t help but feel as if there is an irrevocable change between them—the distance between them remaining as great as ever before.

If Naruto had known this is what victory over Sasuke would feel like, Naruto would’ve never challenged him in the first place.

—

“Orochimaru really did a number on you, didn’t he, hm, Naruto?”

Jiraiya’s knelt in front of him as Naruto sits legs crossed at their usual spot within the training grounds, shirt tossed to the side as he ignores the first cool breeze of fall brush against his bare chest. The sound of Jiraiya’s voice feels distant to him, a blur of words without meaning to him.

These days Naruto’s focus has been wavering from training. All he’s so much as thought about these past several days is Sasuke. Anything else was little more than an afterthought, with his attention always reverting back to him. It’s been irritating to plenty of people, but no more so than it has to Pervy Sage.

“Naruto, focus,” Jiraiya snaps, and Naruto brings his gaze to meet the obvious frown on his sensei’s face. “I’m trying to fix your seal Orochimaru blocked, but I need your undivided attention. Stop worrying so much over Sasuke already, it’s giving me a damn headache.”

“I can’t!” Naruto exclaims, hands waving in the air. “You don’t understand, Pervy Sage, Sasuke was so… not Sasuke. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do in order to make things okay. All I want is to go back to how it was before everything went so crazy but I _can’t _.”

“That’s right, you can’t.” Jiraiya’s gaze is locked on the seal on Naruto’s belly, and there’s a look in his eye Naruto’s never seen before. One of contempt and bitterness. Then Jiraiya shakes his head disdainfully. “I’ve had friends like your Sasuke before, Naruto, so you should listen closely to what I’m about to tell you. People like him have a darkness in their hearts that corrupts and taints until there’s nothing left. From what I’ve gathered from your near incessant ranting, Sasuke is only going to further distract and burden you in the end. Forget him.”

Naruto stares at Jiraiya as if he’s grown a second head. Out of all the nasty and pervasive things that has left the older man’s mouth, no words has ever made Naruto physically recoil like the ones he just uttered.

“Forget about Sasuke?! Are you crazy?” Naruto frowns so hard it’s painful. “You don’t know Sasuke like I do, and he’s nothing like your stupid friend. Nobody even asked for your advice.”

“I know Sasuke,” Jiraiya says, sounding almost far away. “I’ve seen his eyes.”

“Whatever. You don’t know what you’re talking about, Pervy Sage,” Naruto bristles, turning his head away from the serious expression on Jiraiya’s face. “Just do what you came here to do, I don’t wanna talk about Sasuke with you anymore.”

Jiraiya sighs with a twinge of disappointment, but Naruto ignores him, doesn’t so much as glance as him, instead opting for staring at a worm crawling along a patch of dirt near by. Even thinking about the man fills him with anger. There’s a ruffle of sound as Jiraiya prepares for fixing the seal.

“Brace yourself,” Jiraiya announces, and that’s the only warning Naruto gets before his hand all but strikes against the seal of Naruto’s belly.

All at once the Nine-Tails connection floods back to him. The suddenness makes Naruto’s back straighten on its own accord, body stiff, as the familiar presence returns with a vengeance, as if a dam has been broken. Hot chakra bleeds into the cool chakra, overwhelming him. 

The training grounds and Jiraiya’s presence fades away as darkness eats away at his vision until he’s no longer there in the fields, but in the familiar cold sewers of his subconscious. Naruto’s heartrate jumps in throat at the helplessness of not choosing to venture in here, but he swallows the panic down before it too overwhelms him. This is his body, his mind, and he will not allow a stupid fox to overtake him. Except when he looks around the place he’s found himself in, Kyūbi is nowhere in sight. 

Being here reminds him of a dream he can no longer remember the details of. 

_Something is wrong _, a familiar voice echoes through, _Rōshi’s chakra—gone _.

_I felt it too _. Worry is tinged in the words. _There, then nothing._

_Bee, I’m afraid._

Voices bounce along the chambers, too familiar to simply be a coincidence. Naruto clenches his eyes shut, trying to remember who it belongs to, where he’s heard them before, if he knows a man named Rōshi, but it’s all at the edge of his mind, just out of reach.

_Oh, Kurama’s boy is back _.

Naruto’s eyes snap open. He’s heard that exact wording before, not in a dream as he thought, but in a nightmare from months before. It can’t be a coincidence. The only difference now is he’s not asleep. 

“Hey!” Naruto yells at the voices, and listens to his own voice echo back to him. Nobody responds. “Hey, are any of you real? Is this a trick from the Nine-Tails? One of you ghosts better answer me right now!”

Once the echoes quiet, Naruto holds his breath, makes no movement, in order for him to catch the response. Seconds pass, then minutes, and nothing. His fist shakes as he growls in frustration at the sudden silence. 

“You voices chat away saying whatever but when I finally talk back, now you shut up!? How is that fair?” Naruto cries out. “Somebody say something! What are you!? I need to know!”

All at once the voices return, the force of it nearly knocking Naruto back on his feet. There are words he cannot make out due to the overlapping of conversation he’s not apart of. A sinking feeling pools in the pit of his stomach at the realization. Nobody heard him.

Then one single word catches Naruto’s attention: _Akatsuki _.

Naruto gasps, and he’s about to shout he knows what they’re talking about, but all at once the darkness leaves him, and the sun is blinding. And he’s back in the middle of the training field, Jiraiya’s fingers bruising his shoulders as he shakes him awake, a wild panic in his eyes.

“Pervy Sage,” Naruto says, blinking the brightness from his eyes, “What the hell?”

“You’re back,” Jiraiya breathes out. “Where did you go?”

Brows furrowing, Naruto shifts, pushing Jiraiya’s grip off of him as he tries to make sense of the influx of details shuffling around in his brain. “I don’t know, but… I’ve been there before. It’s like when I first met Kurama, but different, ‘cause he wasn’t there but there was something there. I heard them talk.”

“Them? Who, Naruto? Who’s them?”

“Dunno,” Naruto replies. “I only got two names. Rōshi and Bee. Except I don’t know anyone with those names.”

Jiraiya sits back on his feet and something crosses his features as if a lightbulb has clicked on in his head. The way he looks at Naruto with wide eyes makes him feel as if his sensei is aware of something he isn’t.

“Do _you _know them, Pervy Sage?”

“No, it doesn’t ring any bells,” Jiraiya replies, too fast for Naruto’s liking. “This is very important, Naruto, but how many other times have you been to this place before? I need to know this.”

“Once, but in a nightmare. Or I thought it was a nightmare anyway, so I didn't really think much of it. It was after I felt the Nine-Tails chakra for the first time against my fight with Haku.” The realization comes to him as soon as he utters those words, because of course this has to do with the Kyūbi inside him. He’s just not sure how. “And there’s one more thing, sensei.”

“And what’s that?”

“When I heard these voices,” Naruto begins, swallowing the lump in his throat, “They mentioned the Akatsuki.”

—

The Konoha Council debates on who must take the mantle of the Fifth Hokage.

It’s a gruelling process, hours upon hours of discussion and paperwork as they sort through the best options of who to take upon the Hokage mantle, with little time to grieve after the great Sarutobi’s demise. A task they must shoulder upon themselves for the sake of the village. The longer Konohagakure is without a strong, capable leader at its helm, the more susceptible the village is to fall to the other nations seeing Konoha at a weak point. 

With the Third Hokage dead, Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura bring back Shimura Danzō to the council to assist them in their decision. Three minds has always been better than two, and their minds together has ensured peace and stability within Konoha. A fact the late Sarutobi has never fully appreciated.

“It has been a long time since I’ve entered these chambers,” Danzō remarks cooly, taking his usual place among the room. It conforms to his body so easily, as if barely any time has passed at all. “Thank you for allowing me back into your good graces.”

“You know it wasn’t our decision to exclude you, Lord Danzō,” Koharu says. “Nevertheless, we appreciate how readily you’ve returned to us. Konohagakure is in a fragile state because of Orochimaru, as you are well aware. We need a Hokage candidate immediately, and between Homura and I, we are at a standstill.” 

Homura leans back in his chair, fingers tapping rhythmically over his knees. “We need you to break the vote.”

“Who did Lord Third have in mind before his passing, if I may ask?”

“That’s the problem,” Koharu replies. “There was no one, after Orochimaru.”

“We have come to the conclusion that since the remaining sannin are within Konoha’s walls, we may recommend one of them to fulfill the Hokage position,” Homura says, thoughtfully. “They are well-respected and well-known as one of the greatest heroes of the village. However, there lies a singular problem Koharu and I have discussed at length.”

Danzō’s gaze flickers between the two elders, patient, waiting for who will say aloud what they all were thinking. What they all knew what this Hokage needed, in order to avoid the fatal mistakes of the Third.

“Lady Tsunade and Jiraiya are far too unpredictable to become the Hokage Konoha needs,” Koharu states, factually. “Both of them rely far too much on emotion rather than logic in the face of hardship. We all know how they went off the deep end following the tragic incidents of their loved ones, so who’s to say it won’t happen again when either of them are in office?” She takes a laboured breath, rubbing out the fine wrinkles of her skin with her thumb. During these meetings she’s always had the nasty habit of developing a migraine if she sits on a thought for too long. “Besides, there’s that pesky attachment to Orochimaru from their earlier years that plagued Lord Third to think about as well.”

For a moment, Danzō says nothing. Allows himself to take this information in stride and let it fester on his tongue. The two of them are staring at him with expectant eyes as so many times before during these unpleasant discussions regarding the village. There’s a reason why they invited him back into the council so quickly following the Third Hokage’s death. 

All three of them understood the softness of the Third would be Konoha’s downfall, and it was only until he was out of the picture, could they finally realize Konoha for what it was meant to be.

“Forgive me if I’m being presumptuous, but I have a recommendation I think we all would be rather pleased with,” Danzō says as he straightens, unable to hide the cheshire grin growing on his face. “Someone with the same ideals as you two, who understands the mechanisms and workings behind the mere title of Hokage. I think the Fifth Hokage should be me.”

A pause fills the air as the two elders look between each other, and everything from the past several years has finally clicked, falling into place. When their eyes meet back with Danzō’s, there’s a confirmation there he cannot mistake.

“I find your recommendation acceptable, Lord Danzō,” Homura says with a nod. “Truthfully, I find it more than acceptable.”

“If we’re speaking freely, I would have preferred you as Hokage instead of Sarutobi, had I known his weakness would cause such great destruction to Konoha at present.” Koharu collects the mess of files and paper scattered on the table before them, not looking up at either of the men in the room. “Though we cannot change the past, I am most confident of Konoha’s future with you as Hokage.”

“As do I,” Danzō replies, moving to stand over the window and gaze over the Hokage monument. “We will show the world what Konohagakure’s true strength under a worthy Hokage.”

—

A few weeks pass by until the arrival of the Hokage Ceremony. 

“Villagers of Konoha,” says a booming voice over the mega-speakers for every man, woman, and child to hear, “May I present to you, your fifth Hokage, Shimura Danzō!”

The village erupts in cheers as Danzō smiles and waves to the crowd below.

—

“A surprise visit from the new Hokage,” Ororchimaru says in between coughing fits, the hacking echoing along the cave walls. “My, my, how lucky are we, Kabuto, to deserve this honor.”

“Very lucky indeed,” Kabuto replies, glasses shining under the hanging light over Orochimaru’s bed. “It seems the Hokage-Sama has received our message.”

Danzō glances between the two men and does his best to not let the smell lingering in this particular cave get to him. The stench of blood and bile and antiseptic burn his nostrils, cut with a strong undercurrent of death. Machines are attached to Orochimaru’s bed, a thinly veiled attempt at keeping this body alive for a little while longer. From the looks of it, Orochimaru appears to only have days. 

Besides this, the cave appears to be relatively empty, like all the other meeting places before them.

“I was beginning to wonder if you would arrive,” Orochimaru says, the slits of his eyes focused on Danzō’s form. “But I suppose the threat against Konoha spurs all great Hokages into action, hm? I hope you didn’t forget the other part of our deal. For some reason, Sasuke’s body is not in my possession.”

“Your Sound Ninja appeared not to be able to convince Sasuke to return with you,” Danzō responds. “I don’t realize how it falls under my blame.”

“You promised me a young, beautiful body, and I have none in my possession. Of course the blame falls onto you.” The words flow from Orochimaru’s lips so easily, and the mask of pleasantness is already starting to crack. Whether it’s due to fear or impatience remains to be seen. “What are you going to do to bring me my Sasuke?”

“Give me time, is all I ask,” Danzō says. “I can’t guarantee you will have him before this body is at its limit, but you will have him. Consider it a thank you gift, Orochimaru. Without you, I wouldn’t have my title as Hokage.”

Though it pains him to admit that fact alone in the presence of traitors, it’s a truth he must accept. Danzō had a responsibility to bear the weight of unpleasant truths, no matter how much he may detest it.

“It’s always such a pleasure to see when one acknowledges those who’ve helped reach their goals.” Orochimaru’s voice is raspy and tired, as if speaking is taking all of his energy. In an instant, the smirking face of the snake morphs into an expression that holds power behind the threat lingering in his eyes. “Don’t make me regret making a deal with you, Hokage-Sama.”

Danzō nods once, and in an instant his shadow clone disappears. The real Danzō is sat at the Hokage’s desk, sitting back in his chair as he enjoys a celebratory cigarette from his comfortable, rightful seat. A thought comes to mind—a way to tie up all his loose ends.

If Sasuke did not leave with Orochimaru willingly, perhaps it’s time Danzō give him incentive to leave. 

Orochimaru is smart enough to not lead Danzō to his true base of operations, only giving him short-lived locations that are evacuated by the time Danzō sends his men to seize them. The snake has lived long enough to know how to protect and guard itself from all possible signs of threat. But if Danzō were to assign Root members to follow Sasuke, Kabuto, and Orochimaru to their true base of operations, he could kill three birds with one stone. 

It’s time to put all the final pieces into play.

—

Team Seven is on their first mission in what feels like years after Lady Tsunade has finally cleared Sasuke to resume missions. Considering neither Naruto, Sakura, or Sasuke passed the Chunin Exams, they’re all stuck on back to back D-rank missions, much to everyone’s annoyance.

An underlying tension is building underneath the surface, unspoken and nearly tangible for everyone involved. It’s in the way Kakashi-Sensei is constantly trying to break the awkwardness in the air with an off-kilter joke, or how Sakura will relay her progress to the team under Lady Tsunade’s tutelage, or how Sasuke will at random times go strangely quiet, distant in his gaze, as his fingers obsessively brush over the Curse Mark on his neck. 

It’s driving Naruto nuts. Every attempt at goading Sasuke into racing him to see how quickly they can finish sweeping up the debris on a villager’s farm, or for a verbal sparring match is met with Sasuke’s cold indifference. After every mission, Sasuke barely sticks around long enough to give a nod goodbye to either Naruto, Sakura, or Kakashi-Sensei. When Naruto sees him outside of Team Seven’s missions, it’s as if Sasuke is looking past him at something Naruto can’t see. Each time it happens causes Naruto to grit his teeth, makes him want to scream and yell at Sasuke to snap out of it, but nothing comes out.

Naruto misses the old Sasuke. The one who’d tease him and race him in who can finish their dinner faster, who’d drive Naruto up the wall whenever he gave Naruto that smug smirk, training until they’re bone-deep exhausted and leaning on the other while they made their way back to the others. He hates this growing space between them, this icy, cold indifference Naruto is used to from everyone else, but not from him. 

Sasuke had promised nothing would change, but _ everything _ had changed. 

It’s during one of their allotted breaks as Sasuke throws shuriken at invisible targets, Naruto watching him intently while Sakura had wandered off with Kakashi-Sensei and their current client. Each shuriken lands with a_ thunk _against the tree bark, and after Sasuke had ran out, does he stand completely still—eyes closed. It’s a strange sight, one that has Naruto’s eyes narrowing at him.

When Sasuke opens his eyes, the question that leaves past his lips surprises Naruto, “Do you ever get the feeling you’re being watched?”

Heat crawls to his cheeks at the fact he’d been so obvious with his staring Sasuke could feel it without so much as looking at him. “Huh?” Naruto asks in the most innocent voice he can possibly manage, as if he has no idea what Sasuke’s talking about. “What do you mean?”

“Eyes at the back of your head type feeling, Naruto,” Sasuke explains carefully. “As if every move you make is constantly being observed for some purpose you’re just on the brink of understanding, but it’s… Out of your reach.”

Oh, so it wasn’t about him exactly. Naruto can’t explain the disappointment bubbling in his chest at the realization.

Squashing down that strange feeling, Naruto refocuses on the question at hand, humming in thought. To him, Sasuke has always had the attention he always wanted—the admiration sparkling in the eyes of their friends, teachers, and the rest of the villagers acknowledging his greatness, of what he will accomplish in his future as a Leaf Shinobi. Except that’s something Sasuke knew about himself. It was in the arrogant look in his eye every time Naruto so much as glanced in his direction during the Academy. What he’s talking about now is a different beast entirely.

In the places in his mind he doesn’t like to venture into, he thinks he understands what Sasuke means. He remembers what it had felt like to have people’s hatred focused on him, or their gazes avoiding him, people whispering his name but never quite making out what it was they were saying. The helplessness of not knowing why things were the way they were. Always on the outside.

“Yeah,” he eventually says with a nod. “Before I found out I had the Nine-Tails inside me, I felt something like that. People always looking at me with such hatred in their eyes or talk about me like I wasn’t there and I had no idea why. I guess people still do that to me, but I know the reason now…” Naruto shakes his head, ignoring the growing burning anger growing in his heart before it can truly take hold of him. “Is that what you mean, Sasuke?”

“That’s exactly what I mean.” Sasuke takes a deep breath, exhaling slowly through his nose. In a smaller voice, he utters the next words just loud enough for Naruto to hear. “It’s an ugly feeling.”

Naruto looks at Sasuke as if he’s looking at him for the first time with an understanding in his heart. It’s not the first time he felt as if there were anyone in the world who could ever truly get what it’s like to be in his head, it’d be Sasuke, but it is the first time he’s able to formulate this within the other’s presence.

This feels like one of those important moments, Naruto can feel it in the pit of his gut. It’s the first time in days Sasuke has reached out to him, well, to anyone since that day back in his apartment, and Naruto has to meet him and take Sasuke where he stands. An opportunity to fix this messed up thing between them.

“Sasuke, are you okay?” Naruto stands up then, so he’s facing Sasuke. They’re close enough for Naruto to see the beginnings of dark circles underneath his eyes, the anger barely contained in his jaw. “You’ve been different lately. Everyone can feel it. It’s starting to affect the team, ya know.”

For a moment, Naruto feels as if he’s said the wrong thing once again from the way Sasuke’s eyes are downcasted, away from Naruto’s own gaze. But then there’s a _ hmph _ that escapes from him, and the sound is so welcomed Naruto’s heart surges in his chest.

“No, I’m not okay, Naruto,” Sasuke mutters, looking away from him. “I have this stupid Curse Mark on my neck that’s eating away at me every chance I’m not in total control.” He grabs his set of kunai blades, chucking it at the bark of the tree with a hatred fueling its power. “I’m stuck in a team of losers where I’m not getting any stronger while Itachi is out there, getting more and more powerful while I stagnate.”

Each kunai lands precisely next to the shuriken thrown from earlier. Not a single one clashes against the other, except for the last throw after Sasuke gasps, hand twitching just at the release of his wrist.

Naruto snaps his gaze towards Sasuke, who’s clutching at the Curse Mark on his neck, but it’s already spread along the expanse of his collar bone, the underside of his jaw, all the way to his eyes—like the time they were battling Gaara after everything had erupted into chaos in the arena. His eyes are clenched shut in pain as he breathes through it, body trembling. The sight of it makes a rage burn in Naruto’s chest at Orochimaru for doing this to Sasuke. If he ever sees the man again, Naruto will kill him.

Without thinking, Naruto takes Sasuke’s hand in his and squeezes, and refuses to let go when Sasuke’s eyes snap open and stare at him with an intensity in his eyes Naruto doesn’t recognize. The sight of him makes Naruto’s heart pound against his chest lightning quick. He should let go of him, give him his space, but seeing him like how he was before—it’s impossible for Naruto to leave him alone. 

“You’re an idiot if you’re going to let that bastard Orochimaru win every time you get mad,” Naruto says, refusing to break the contact. “Don’t give into it. You’re better than that, Sasuke.”

Sasuke chuckles darkly through a wince, but doesn’t pull away from Naruto’s touch or his gaze. “Compared to the power the Curse Mark gives me, I’m weak. I needed _ you _ of all people to save me.”

“Well we’re even now, aren’t we?” Naruto takes a step closer. “I saved you from that stupid snake Orochimaru was going to throw at you, then Gaara. Now we’re on equal footing.”

“I told you I’m not a moron who needs to keep score,” Sasuke replies. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Of course it matters, asshole! You say you’re weak, but you’re not! You’re the reason why I pushed myself so hard to get stronger because you’re my rival, and this stupid, whiny bitch Sasuke in front of me who says nothing matters is not the Sasuke I know!” The grip he has on Sasuke’s hand is crushing, but the other either doesn’t notice, or doesn’t care. “This Sasuke won’t be the one to avenge his clan, but the Sasuke I knew before? The one who didn’t give up and worked hard and kept getting the fuck up because he was that strong? That’s the Sasuke who will kill Itachi! Curse Mark or no Curse Mark!”

Sasuke closes his eyes as Naruto attempts to catch his breath after his rant, and slowly, the dark marks covering his face begin to fade away, slinking back to the three tomoe etched into his skin. When he opens his eyes, the pain there is gone too. 

“You are so loud,” he says after a moment. “When we eventually come face to face with Itachi again, you better not be the one to give us away.”

“We?”

“Don’t make me repeat it, you loser,” Sasuke replies, and in a much quieter voice, adds, “Thanks.”

Naruto smiles brightly at the words, never once hearing them come from Sasuke before. The space between them feels shorter now, and it’s only then does he realize it’s not just the connection between them, but the physical one too. Naruto hadn’t realized how close he got to Sasuke, or that he’d been practically yelling in his face, until the heat of the moment has passed.

Last time they’d been this close was when they’d kiss what felt like ages ago in the Academy. 

The thought comes so sudden, so out of nowhere, Naruto pulls his hand back as he all but jumps away from Sasuke’s personal bubble. He clears his throat when Sasuke stares at him, brows furrowed as if he’s the biggest idiot in the world. Naruto doesn’t care how he looks at him, but he’s wishing he’d stop so the burning in his cheeks would go away.

“You good, Usuratonkachi?” Sasuke asks, head tilting. “You’re sweating.”

“I’m fine!” Naruto protests, ignoring the way his body is beginning to feel hot all over. “Mind your own business!”

Except this isn’t the usual heat he feels when he’s embarrassed, he realizes. This one envelops him and feels wrong in a way he can’t articulate.

A searing pain shoots through Naruto’s seal, knocking the air from his lungs. His hand goes to clutch where the seal is burning through his clothes all the way to the palm of his hand, and this isn’t right. The sheer force of it causes Naruto to trip over his own feet, stumbling right into Sasuke who catches him just in time before he collides face first into the ground below.

“Naruto?” Sasuke yells, eyes wide with fear as he all but holds Naruto up through sheer force alone. “Damn it, what the fuck is wrong with you?”

Inside Kurama howls in pain throughout Naruto’s skull, causing him to cry out with him. All he can feel is as if something is being ripped from him, as if an invisible limb is being torn apart, slow and violent. Unshed tears burn his eyes as his throat goes raw from the screams tearing from him.

When he closes his eyes, he can _ feel _the others alongside him. Voices of pain from human and monster alike all crying out at once. 

Images flash past his mind. Men in dark cloaks. Pillars and ancient buildings surrounding them. Red hot chakra being pulled from inside him. A dark sky overhead. Four tails of a beast emerging from a screaming, terrified man writhing on the ground in a pain Naruto’s forced to feel alongside of. 

Whoever this man is, he’s dying, and Naruto’s dying too.

“Sasuke, he’s dying,” Naruto breathes out. “I don’t want to die.”

As the last breath leaves the man, Naruto’s eyes fall closed in time with him. 

—

By the time Kakashi convinces Sasuke and Sakura to leave the waiting room hospital in Konoha, the sun has already long since set.

Kakashi returns to the room where Naruto lays, deep in sleep, exhausted and envious of his subordinate’s state. When Sasuke had ran to him hours earlier, panic-striken and fear in his eyes, he had quickly informed him of what happened as they all raced back to where Naruto had been passed out on the ground, covered in the familiar red-hot chakra. 

It was a miracle Kakashi and Sasuke had sustained the damage they did after carrying Naruto, but now he’s only left with questions.

In the room, Lady Tsunade and Jiraiya are whispering to themselves as Naruto sleeps, peaceful and unaware. They pause to look at him as he enters, sharing a few last words to each other before they nod for him to close the door behind them. Apparently this is a conversation not meant for ears other than theirs.

“I would like an explanation as to Naruto’s…” Any description of the event is lost in Kakashi’s words, because there was no way he could accurately describe any of what happened today. “Condition. Assuming it’s due to the Nine-Tails, correct?”

“Yes,” Lady Tsunade says, her tone grave and serious. “That is the conclusion we’re coming to.”

“Has Naruto been acting strange?” Jiraiya asks then. “Anything at all you can think of when it comes to the Nine-Tails?”

Kakashi thinks back. If anything, Naruto’s been more down than strange, mostly due to Sasuke not pandering to their little rivalry any longer, but other than that, the boy’s been acting normal as far as Kakashi could tell.

“Nothing significant comes to mind,” Kakashi replies. “Sasuke mentioned that during this episode, Naruto kept mentioning someone was dying.”

“Someone?”

“In his exact words, ‘Sasuke, he’s dying. I don’t want to die.’” Kakashi looks between the two sannin, at the way they share a look of dread. “Guessing that holds significance to you both.”

“This doesn’t leave this room,” Jiraiya states. “Understand?”

Kakashi nods simply.

“We believe Naruto just felt the death of a fellow jinchūriki.”

—

In the shadows, a man in a mask waits for Uchiha Sasuke.

The man has no name unless given to him by Hokage Danzō. The man has no face unless Hokage Danzō allows him one. The man has no emotions, no wants, no thoughts, unless given to him by Hokage Danzō. The man has no organization in which he belongs to if asked by anyone other than Hokage Danzō. The man is not a man unless Hokage Danzō needs him to be one. 

Tonight, Hokage Danzō needs the man with no name to be a messenger, so a messenger the man with no name will be. 

In his hands is a file from the restricted sections from Hokage Danzō’s archive, forbidden by anyone other than Root members when under command to interfere with. This particular file is light, containing a single one-paged report of an incident known to the village of Konoha as the Uchiha Massacre. 

The man with no name does not look into the file, though he knows what it contains. A clinical report of the events leading up to the events of the Uchiha Massacre, a list of names of those involved, and a follow-up report on the events that transpired in the following hours written and filed by Hokage Danzō himself. Inside there will be signatures belonging to the Konoha elders and the late Third Hokage. Inside will be a truth long hidden from the general public of Konoha.

Until tonight, however. 

It doesn’t take long before Uchiha Sasuke approaches his apartment building, hands in his pockets, unbothered by the chill air against his skin. Once he makes it past the entryway, the man with no name moves, jumping from rooftop to rooftop until he makes it to the Uchiha’s bedroom window and slips himself inside without a sound. The man with no name waits in the darkness, listens for the soft steps of the approaching Uchiha, the insertion of the key, the turn of the knob, and doesn’t move when the Uchiha turns the lights on and stills in the doorway with wide eyes.

“Are you here to kill me?” The Uchiha asks cooly, the Sharingan flashing threateningly. “Because you will not do so with ease.”

The man with no name says nothing, and simply holds out the file for the other to take. With an untrusting glare, the Uchiha stares at the file for several minutes before reaching out and taking it into his grasp, but does not make a move to open it.

“What is this?” 

“A hidden truth,” the man with no name answers. “From a friend.”

“And who might that friend be?”

“Orochimaru sends his best regards, Uchiha Sasuke.”

At Orochimaru’s name, the Uchiha’s eyes widen, free hand immediately going towards the Curse Mark scarring his neck. He glances at the file in hand, reads the classified title written in the center of it, and his breath hitches.

Before the Uchiha could ask him another question, the man with no name is gone, as if he never existed in the first place. 

Mission complete. 

—

By the time Naruto wakes in the hospital, the sun has long since set.

Outside the stars shine brightly through his window, the lanterns and streetlamps glowing a soft golden hue from the village below. Naruto stretches his limbs as he steps up from the hospital bed, yawning, feeling a peacefulness from the chatter of villagers below. It’s come to his realization the pain he felt hours earlier is gone, his body feeling back to normal actually. Whatever had happened to him just a faint memory now.

And he remembers the fear and shock on Sasuke’s face so clearly, his heart hurts. Now that he’s feeling better, he should let Sasuke know he’s alright. Out of consideration for his teammate’s feelings, no other weird reason or whatever.

It’s the slow hours of the hospital now, so when Naruto leaves his room in the dead of night, no one stops him. Even the nurse that acknowledges him at the station makes one of the typical faces the villagers makes at him, scrunched up as if she’s eaten something sour and turns her nose away from him. In return, Naruto flips her off and sticks his tongue towards her as he pushes past the hospital doors and leaves the stupid place behind him.

Sasuke’s place isn’t too far from here, thankfully. Only a block away, if he cuts through the main streets and uses the roofs to his advantage. Naruto sets off, running along a particularly tall building, before hopping from roof to roof in the direction of Sasuke’s apartment building. It takes him several minutes before he’s standing in front of it, and from where he’s stood, can see the faint light illuminating from Sasuke’s window.

Luckily Sasuke has left his window unlocked and considering the view inside of his bare room, it’s probably because he knows he has nothing worthwhile to steal. Naruto scoots himself inside, taking in the room, and that’s when he sees it. 

Outside had left this particular wall invisible from anyone peering in, but as he stands in the center of the room, a feeling of dread overtakes him, makes his stomach sink down to the soles of his feet. Cut-outs of articles regarding mass-killings of clans from different villages line the middle of the wall so one’s eyes can’t help but gravitate towards it. When Naruto steps closer, a majority of the papers are newspaper clippings regarding the Uchiha massacre from villages not from Konoha. Notes written in Sasuke’s scrawl of handwriting about possible reasons for why a village would massacre an entire clan, how a thirteen year old Itachi being in Anbu gave him perfect opportunity to escape the village without Konoha Shinobi able to catch him, and who in the village could’ve ordered a hit on the Uchiha clan.

Then on the wooden floor, a classified folder lays haphazardly with a single paper inside, confirming all of Sasuke’s paranoia and fear.

“Oh no,” Naruto breathes out, lightheaded and dizzy, letting the folder fall from his fingertips. He can’t stare at the wall any longer. “What the hell, Sasuke?”

How long has Sasuke been up to this? Since the Land of Waves at least. All this time Sasuke had been losing himself to this conspiracy and Naruto had stood by, failing him in letting this go on without telling anybody.

Except it wasn’t just a conspiracy anymore, it was true. All of it was true.

If Sasuke has gone to tell everyone what he discovered without all this to back him, they’d call him crazy or traitorous or something _ much _ worse. They needed to find Kakashi-Sensei before someone other than Naruto stumbles upon this absolute mess Sasuke left behind.

Naruto can’t wait for Sasuke to come home. Finding him before anyone else can is _ all _ that matters.

—

When Uchiha Sasuke steps into his office, Danzō is unsurprised.

There’s a purpose in Sasuke’s steps as he approaches, and stands eerily still until Danzō looks up and finally acknowledges his presence. As he stares into the Uchiha’s eyes, he’s reminded of Itachi’s eyes the night the Uchiha were ordered to be cleansed. Shame the one Uchiha he thought capable of fixing his problems couldn’t finish the job.

“You know why I’m here,” Sasuke says, voice even and cold. “I want the truth about what happened that night.”

“The truth is a fickle and relative concept, Sasuke,” Danzō replies. “But I’ll indulge you. What is it you wish to know?”

“Was Konoha the ones behind the Uchiha massacre?”

“Yes.”

A choked off noise escapes despite the boy’s best efforts. Still young, still unable to take his emotions away from the reality of the situation. A fundamental flaw that wrought the Uchiha clan’s destruction.

“Why?” It’s little more than a whisper. “Is there even a reason?”

Danzō’s enough of a man to at least offer those beneath him an explanation.

“The Uchiha clan were a threat to the village. Rumors spread of the Uchiha clan’s involvement spread like wildfire throughout the village. You see, only an Uchiha can summon the Kyuubi. I've had my suspicions, but nothing had ever been confirmed.” The evidence of that night had been damning, but Lord Third had claimed otherwise. Danzō was the only one who’s had all the information at his disposal, the only one who could look at the facts and determine truth from fiction, and had waited years for the true nature of the Uchiha clan to reveal themselves. “When there was evidence of the Uchiha clan planning a coup d'etat against Konoha, we understood what needed to be done.

Sasuke closes his eyes and takes a deep, shuddering breath, trembling as if the whole world has come down on him. A single tear slides down his cheek and he doesn’t make a move to wipe it, doesn’t so much as twitch for a long while. When he finally opens his eyes, they’re blood red. 

“Konoha will pay for their crimes against the Uchiha clan,” he snarls. From behind his desk, two Root officers are already armed and waiting to attack. “First, I’m going to kill Itachi. Second, I’m coming for your head, Danzō, and anyone else involved in their choice to eliminate an entire clan. And third, I’m going to reveal the truth for all of Konoha.”

“What makes you think I would allow that?” Danzō asks. “A single voice against me is easily refutable. Nobody will believe a branded traitor of the village. They’d want your head before they’d ever come for mine.”

“I’ll make them believe.” Sasuke narrows his eyes. “And if they don’t, I’ll show them my truth.”

“Guards, arrest Uchiha Sasuke for treason against Konohagakure.”

The two Root members obey, and for a split second, the familiar look of betrayal flashes on the Uchiha’s face. As quickly as it appears, it’s gone, replaced with a smirk crosses Sasuke’s face that has Danzō raising his hand to pause his men in order to hear the boy’s final words.

In another life, Uchiha Sasuke could have been a valuable asset to Konoha. Maybe some part of him is grieving for that loss, though he’d never admit it.

“I’ve already left Konoha, you absolute moron,” Sasuke says, gleefully. “When I come back, not even you or your lapdogs will be able to stop me.”

In an instant, Sasuke’s body evaporates into smoke—a shadow clone. How very clever and cowardice of him. 

Danzō won’t give him the opportunity to come back. 

—

When Naruto arrives at the village gates, two Leaf Shinobi lay passed out on the ground. 

“Sasuke left the village,” Sakura says behind him, and when he turns, he notices the way she’s clutching the back of her head, the blood and cuts along her hands and knees. Eyes red and puffy. “I couldn’t stop him.”

_ This can’t be happening. _

“If there’s anyone who can bring him back, it’s you, Naruto,” she says, and there’s something like hope in her voice. “Promise me you’ll bring Sasuke back to the village. Promise me.”

“I promise, Sakura,” Naruto says with a smile with a thumbs up, despite the way he shakes. “Even if I have to break every bone in his body, I’ll bring him back to Konoha.”

All he can do is hope he’s not too late.

—

A few of his friends join him in Sasuke’s retrieval. When Shimkamaru utters the words _traitor _and _Sasuke _in the same sentence , Naruto’s all the more determined to get to him first.

—

Eventually Naruto catches up to Sasuke.

They’re alone at the Valley of the End, a monument of a fight Iruka had taught in class that Naruto could care less about now. Above the sky cackles with electricity as the gray clouds swarm up ahead, and Naruto hopes among all that is rational that this isn’t some type of omen. 

“Sasuke!” Naruto yells across the gap between them and Sasuke stills, turns around slowly. After a moment when it appears Sasuke will no longer run away from him, he leaps, closes the distance until he’s standing inches from the other’s face. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Sasuke asks, tilting his head at Naruto. “I’m leaving Konoha.”

“Well, don’t,” Naruto says plainly, and he suddenly feels very stupid after those words hang in the air. If only he were better at words. “Don’t leave. Everybody came all this way to make sure you don’t do something stupid that you’ll regret for the rest of your life, so come on.”

“You say everyone, but you’re the only one here.”

“They got tied up by Orochimaru’s crew, but they came here looking for _you _because they’re your _friends _,” he explains. “Why would you even go looking for Orochimaru? After what he did to you, to the village, to the Hokage. How can you even consider something so stupid?”

“I would have killed the Third Hokage myself if I had the chance,” Sasuke says with an eerie calmness to his voice. “Along with the current one.”

Naruto wants to slap himself in the face for being so stupid.

“I know what they did, Sasuke. I saw the folder,” he says, taking a step closer towards him, bridging the distance between them. “I understand why you’re feeling the way you do.”

“If you understand so well, why would I stay in Konoha, huh?” Sasuke snaps, baring his teeth. In his eyes, hatred burns at the village’s name. “After what they did to my clan, they were going to keep me in the dark and let me be their tool. I found out the truth and they called _me _the traitor after they betrayed my clan. Danzō was going to lock _me _up. How can I go back, Naruto? _Answer me that _.”

Naruto swallows a lump in his throat. “Leaving isn’t the right way. We can go back and show them everything you’ve found, put those responsible away and on trial—”

A bark of a laugh escapes Sasuke’s throat, condescending and malicious. “You_ idiot. _Those who are responsible are the ones in charge of everything in Konoha. They own the military, the judges, and every single Shinobi in the entire village. Do you really think they’ll willingly put their own away because, what? We asked them to?” He shakes his head, his hair flowing wildly in his face. “Don’t be so fucking naive, Naruto. You’re not _that _stupid.”

A long silence stretches between them, though in actuality it only lasts a few seconds. When Naruto meets Sasuke’s gaze, he’s waiting, watching him with an intensity that makes it hard to breathe.

“Is it finally sinking into that thick skull of yours yet?” Sasuke asks with a little less anger in his voice. He’s still on guard in the way his body remains tense, even after that little bit of leeway he offers to Naruto. “The only way the Uchiha can get any justice is if I do things my own way.”

“How do you know unless we try?”

“Enough with the ‘_ we _’ already!” Sasuke snaps, much louder than any other time before. His nostrils flare and his brows are so pulled together it’s almost painful. “Why are you trying to go so easy on Konoha? You of all people is the only one who could come closest to understanding how I feel. After how they treated you all these years, hating you for something out of your control. They made you into a Jinchūriki and acted like you were less than the shit underneath their shoes because of it.”

“Shut up.” Naruto’s gaze hardens, his voice cracking at the strain of the volume only growing louder and louder. “Shut the hell up, Sasuke.”

“No.” The word is cold and final, the Uchiha stubbornness making a grand appearance. “Don’t ignore me because you’re too afraid to deal with the truth.”

“It’s _your _truth.” There’s a tremble in his voice, a sign of weakness at the fact that Sasuke’s not completely wrong. Of course he isn’t, because of Naruto trusting him enough to confess his truth all those nights ago, and now it was being thrown right back into his face. “Not everyone in Konoha is like that. Iruka-Sensei, Kakashi-Sensei, Sakura, and you are all from the same village. Who’s to say they can’t see what all of you see? I’m going to _make _them change their minds about me.”

Sasuke scoffs in disbelief. “That’s four people out of an entire village, moron. Not everyone is like us, like me. Besides, how long did it take for you to get those four? You’re telling me you’re willing to wait another thirteen years, twenty years, thirty for maybe a handful of the village to recognize you? Is that _really _what you want?”

There’s that familiar question that keeps popping up throughout his life. Is that really what you want? Of course it is, it’s all he’s ever wanted for as long as he can remember. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, becoming acknowledged by everyone in the village has been his dream for so long, anything else felt nothing short of blasphemy.

So why is it when Sasuke asks him that question does the seedlings of doubt begin to sprout within?

“You should come with me, Naruto.”

Naruto glances at Sasuke, and sees the sincereity in his offer. Brows furrowed, eyes wide and staring right into Naruto’s heart. It’s the most vulnerable Naruto’s ever seen him before, and he’s seen him on the edge of death.

It’s as if his brain short-circuits. Any words he has for Sasuke are stuck in his throat and he’s choking on them.

“Leave Konoha?” Naruto finally manages to let out, voice breaking. “They’d send squads after us and kill us, Sasuke. Don’t you remember Zabuza and Haku? They were always running, always looking over their shoulder. Do you really want that?”

“I die if I stay, I die if I leave,” Sasuke mutters. “At least we have a choice away from Konoha. Come on, Naruto, it’s the _obvious _choice.”

Silence befalls on Naruto again, at the thought of leaving Iruka behind, Sakura, Kakashi, all their friends they’ve made and how much he’s suffered to get to this point. The idea of throwing it all away, being hunted by the very people he’s given all his years towards, makes his stomach twist painfully, bile burning his throat. 

He needs time to think about what to do. There has to be a third option other than leave with Sasuke and Konoha killing him for a treason he did not commit.

When Naruto doesn’t respond, Sasuke presses on, right to the heart of it. “Remember how you felt those months ago?” Sasuke’s voice is on the edge of desperation, almost pleading, but no. That’s not right. Pleading and Sasuke were too opposite to ever be considered as a natural occurrence. Neither of them are in their right minds, neither of them can talk like this, but Naruto’s already sucked in this far and can’t seem to dig himself out of this tunnel they’ve dug for themselves. “After the story of the Ten-Tails? How angry and hurt you were because all they see you as is a monster? That’s never going to change if you stay in Konoha, Naruto.”

Blood is rushing through his head, heart pounding in his ears. He hasn’t realized he has his hands balled into fists until he can feel the warm, wet sensation of blood under his fingernails.

Sasuke has always had a way of digging at the spots that makes Naruto lose all sense of rationality.

“Do you really think Konoha would let a monster become Hokage?”

There’s a smack of skin against skin as his fist collides with Sasuke’s jaw, and Naruto’s knuckles ache. Naruto’s shaking from his fingertips all throughout his body, vibrating with a poisoning anger. When Sasuke spits, there’s blood.

“Stop talking nonsense,” Naruto says, haughtily, only masking the fact he’s begging to not talk about this. Anything but the one thing that will make Sasuke like anybody else from the village. “We’re going home and we’re going to fix this. Now.”

A flicker of realization and betrayal flashes in Sasuke’s widening eyes. He takes a step back, away from Naruto, as if Naruto’s touch has burned him.

“If you’re not with me,” he utters slow and poignant, “Then you’re against me.”

“Of course I’m with you!” Naruto’s eyes are burning with unshed tears straining his vision. Looking at Sasuke makes him ache. “Just not when you’re like this, Sasuke!”

“There’s nothing other than _this _left, Naruto.”

Sasuke gestures towards himself as if for emphasis, and Naruto shakes his head violently.

“_ Please _, let’s just go home.”

“I don’t have a home anymore,” Sasuke says with an anger that makes his voice shake. “Konoha took my home away from me.”

Naruto groans in frustration despite the way his throat has grown tight. Talking to Sasuke is the equivalent of talking to a brick wall, unyielding. All the words he’s been mulling over in his head for when Naruto would eventually come face to face with him evaporate from his tongue. He lunges forward, grabbing a fistful of the fabric of Sasuke’s shirt, tugs him close until their faces are only a mere inches apart. Sasuke stares at him expectedly, hanging on to Naruto’s face, as Naruto searches for the right combination of words or actions to get Sasuke to stay with him. 

When Naruto opens his mouth to speak, to beg, no words come.

Disappointment flickers on Sasuke’s features. No other person has ever come close to making Naruto unravel in his failure as Sasuke does. That hasn’t changed between them apparently.

“You’ve made everything abundantly clear to me, Naruto.” Dark eyes stare into him, burning. It’s a fire that’s been started since the massacre that’s never been put out since. “All this time I thought you were stronger than me, but you’re not. You’re weak and always have been and you’ve decided to infect me with it too. If I’m to reach my goals, I have to cut off this weakness before it spreads to the rest of me.”

“Sasuke, I’m bringing you back to Konoha,” Naruto grits out, teeth bared, his fingers clutching at the fabric until his knuckles turn white, “Even if I have to break every bone in your body to do so.”

When Sasuke punches him, he’s sent flying until he crashes into the pool of water below.

It’s the beginning of the end.

—

They fight. Scream words at each other. Kick and punch and claw at each other until they’re both bruised and bleeding and broken. 

Kurama’s chakra burns as much as his hatred does, but Naruto lets it run through him like a current, his desperation to keep Sasuke with him fueling the chakra through his body.

At some point, Naruto loses consciousness and wonders if _this _is finally death taking him. 

For the briefest of moments, he swears he feels Sasuke’s breath hover over his skin before he loses the familiar heat of him.

In his mind, those familiar voices float in and out, and no matter how much he reaches out to grab them, they’re just out of his grasp. They bring him a certain comfort now, he realizes. He wants to find them more than anything.

Vaguely, he remembers Kakashi speaking to him, travelling through the forest, the white bright light of the hospital. Faces he recognizes visiting and speaking to him, none of them the one he wants to see. It feels like a bad dream he can’t quite wake up from. 

Naruto’s so tired, so very tired, of being such a failure. 

How long he sleeps, he doesn’t know, nor does he care.

When he dreams, he dreams of Sasuke.

—

As Hokage, Danzō loathes meetings, though they are necessary. Most are boring, tedious, or downright displeasurable. This current meeting with Jiraiya is all of those at once, until not even five minutes in, the door to his office is all but torn away from its hinges by Lady Tsunade’s fist with Kakashi a couple steps behind her.

Danzō raises a brow from the two intruders, his now broken door, and Jiraiya who’s sitting across from him with a wide-eyed expression. “Lady Tsunade, always a pleasure,” says Danzō, holding back the contempt in his tone. “Kakashi-Sensei. I am in the middle of a private meeting, as you can see. This better be important.”

“It is,” Lady Tsunade says, and shoots daggers at Jiraiya. “You didn’t inform me you were meeting the Hokage. We didn’t even discuss—”

“There’s nothing to discuss,” Jiraiya cuts off. “All the facts are laid bare.”

“You’re jumping to conclusions because of what happened with—”

“And you’re being clouded by your personal feelings on the matter, Tsunade.”

“Oh, how _dare _you.”

“Enough.” Danzō looks between the two sannin, waits until the fighting with words settles between them before he continues. “Now somebody calmly inform me of what it is this meeting is about before I kick you all from my office.”

“Well, I came here to discuss what we’re intending to do about the Akatsuki and Orochimaru,” Jiraiya informs. “And that I’m willing to offer my services in gathering information and or apprehending those affiliated with either of them.”

Danzō nods, pleased with Jiraiya’s answer. “The council and I have come to the conclusion that Orochimaru is our number one priority at the moment, following the rebuilding of the village. Anyone caught affiliated with Orochimaru has been deemed an enemy of Konoha and will be treated as such.” A beat. “As for the Akatsuki, while they are troublesome considering the involvement of high-ranking individuals, we have deemed them as not an immediate threat to Konoha for the time being.”

“I don’t mean to interrupt,” Kakashi says for the first time. “But what about Uchiha Sasuke?”

“What about him?” Danzō must swallow the anger that bubbles from Kakashi asking such a ridiculous question. “Uchiha Sasuke is a traitor of Konoha. A missing nin. We all know the penalties for such insolence.”

“Uchiha Sasuke should not be treated as such,” Tsunade cuts in, much to Danzō’s surprise. “If anything, there should be an effort to bring him back to Konoha. We know Orochimaru has him targeted from the beginning, we know the Curse Mark affects the mind in ways we don’t understand. He’s not a criminal, he’s just a boy.”

Lady Tsunade’s righteous anger is palpable even from where Danzō is sat behind the Hokage’s desk. Since she’s been back in the village, she’s been a valuable asset to the recent medical advancements of Konoha in the most recent months, but just as easily, she could become a disadvantage. As a member of the Senju clan, granddaughter of the previous Hokages, and one of the Leaf’s sannin, she holds a place in the village’s hearts Danzō is only just acquiring after leaving the shadows. With enough disruption, she could be a possible hindrance in his plans to ensure Konoha’s future.

This is a situation which must be handled delicately. 

“A boy who’s put our own ninja in the hospital,” Danzō says slowly. “Are you saying we should simply forget about this, Lady Tsunade?”

“Speaking as the Jonin in charge of Sasuke and Naruto, who he put in the hospital, we should give him a chance to make amends.” Kakashi stands tall, even when Danzō’s scrutinizing gaze meets his own. “I failed Sasuke. Allow me the opportunity to set everything right and bring back one of Konoha’s finest Shinobi.”

None of them know Uchiha Sasuke won’t return to the village unless it’s to avenge his family, but this lack of knowledge can be a benefit to Danzō if he plays his cards right. Maybe if he’s lucky and he allows them a chance to bring Sasuke back, they’ll have no choice but to kill him, or Sasuke may kill them. 

“I will allow you the opportunity to bring Sasuke back to his family in Konoha,” Danzō says, and doesn’t miss the frustration that crosses Jiraiya’s face, contrasting with the relief that crosses Tsunade’s and Kakashi’s features. “If there’s nothing else.”

“One more thing,” Lady Tsunade says. “We insist the Akatsuki take a bigger priority in the threat level against Konoha.”

“Oh?” Danzō glances between the three. “Any particular reason?”

Lady Tsunade shoves Jiraiya in the shoulder, apparently urging him to come forward with the obvious thought on his mind. He clears his throat once. “We know the Akatsuki have targeted Naruto due to Itachi and Kisame’s attempt on him a few months ago, but we also have reason to believe it’s not just Naruto they’re targeting.” Jiraiya’s expression goes gravely dark. “We believe they’re targeting _all _jinchūriki, and have already begun their plans.”

“What are these plans?”

“We believe the Akatsuki are killing jinchūriki,” Jiraiya states. “It’s relatively unconfirmed, but we’re thinking at least one is dead.”

The office drops a few degrees in temperature, a chill filling every space and crevice within. Even Danzō , the master of determining another’s moves, has no idea what the purpose of killing jinchūriki could be for. Only that whatever the Akatsuki’s goals are, they are a threat to every hidden village.

“How would you come to know something like this, Jiraiya?”

“Through Naruto,” Jiraiya says. “He said he felt one die.”

Danzō’s throat goes dry. How could the jinchūriki felt the death of another, unless…

“The rumors are true then?” Danzō demands. “Explain yourself.”

“We’re unsure of it ourselves, but I do believe the rumors are true,” Jiraiya says. “Jinchūriki are possibly connected to each other, though we’re unsure of how. Naruto also says he’s heard voices when he enters the state allowing him to access the Kyūbi’s chakra, one of them belonging to Killer Bee from the Hidden Cloud Village. We believe they’re able to communicate with each other somehow.”

Secrets of the tailed beasts and their jinchūriki are still relatively unknown, despite the years of accumulated knowledge on them. If it’s possible they are connected and able to communicate all this time despite the fact Senju Hashirama purposefully kept them separated for the safety of the villages, despite the seal cutting them off not just from their biiju but each other, they were all being played for fools. 

One jinchūriki alone is manageable to contain, even beneficial in order to strengthen their respective village. More than one brought together could upset the perfect balance and wreak havoc the world may never recover from. 

“Now that I have the information I need, I agree with your assessment on the Akatsuki problem,” Danzō states. “I recommend we inform the other Hidden Villages of the Akatsuki problem, discreetly. One team.”

“Let it be mine,” Kakashi insists. “We need Naruto’s connection to find them, and in the meantime we will be searching for Sasuke.”

“No. Uzumaki Naruto must remain in the village if he is a target of the Akatsuki,” Danzō replies, eyeing Kakashi. “I’ve read the report of the mission from Shinjuku, Kakashi-Sensei. How do you expect me to believe you’re capable of protecting your subordinate if you were taken down so simply by members of their organization?”

Kakashi’s eye narrows, and Danzō knows he’s struck a nerve. 

“They will think twice about attacking if Naruto if he is accompanied by a sannin,” Lady Tsunade states. “I volunteer to accompany Team Seven in the mission of informing the Hidden Villages of the Akatsuki, and the retrieval of Uchiha Sasuke.”

With Tsunade out of the village, Danzō realizes the threat of her becoming an obstacle disappears with her.

“I find your proposition promising, Lady Tsunade,” Danzō relents. “This mission still needs to be discussed with the Konoha council before any major decisions come to fruition.”

“Of course,” Lady Tsunade replies, nodding once. “We will be here until the confirmation then.”

“Consider this meeting finished,” says Danzō. “You’re all dismissed.”

There’s a mess only a Hokage can clean up that needs to be taken care of.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm @sapphicvevo on tumblr! My Naruto sideblog is @adhdsasuke
> 
> Leave a kudos/comment if you enjoyed! :~) It makes my day!


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